


Chokers

by Kaana



Category: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe, Fluff and Crack, Friendship, Mild Language, Multi, Non-Sexual Slavery, Out of Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-21
Updated: 2014-10-31
Packaged: 2018-02-18 05:33:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 21
Words: 29,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2337008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaana/pseuds/Kaana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a war spanning four years, the alliance formed between the Seven Seas Alliance and the Reim Empire has finally managed to bring down the Kou Empire. However, Gyokuen and Al-Thamen flee, abandoning their magi and Kou to the tender mercies of the alliance in hopes of delaying them- with strange 'gifts' in the form of chokers around every prisoner's neck. AU. DISCONTINUED.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

They weren’t necklaces so much as collars, chokingly restrictive bands of metal pressing coldly against their throats.

“Al-Thamen obviously did this as a delaying tactic! They lost Kou, so now they’re leaving their royalty and their depraved magi behind-”  
“Most of them are Metal Vessel users, they would make valuable weapons-”  
“- to kill us all in our sleep! Al-Thamen says they aren’t permitted to harm us-”  
“Stop arguing! Al-Thamen is trying to sow dissension in our ranks!”  
“- but who would trust that witch and her organization?”  
“-the collars already bind their magoi so they can’t unleash their vessels-“

Yes, collars were the right word for them.

“En-nii…” Kouha spoke in a near-whisper; his voice was ragged from yelling and shouts of anger, his clothes ripped and tattered. Like the rest of the people in the chamber, his wrists and ankles were chained together and he bore a gleaming, metallic choker around his neck. “…What’s going to happen to us?”

Kouen didn’t reply- couldn’t reply, and after a minute Kouha looked away, his eyes shadowed with worry as he surveyed the room and its inhabitants. Kouen, Koumei, Kougyoku, Hakuryuu, Hakuei… the rest of his siblings… their servants… household members… 

“What happens to the djinn of metal vessel users when they die?”  
“Well, we’ll know at midnight won’t we? Just wait for the collars to kill them-“

There was a simultaneous flinch from half the people in the room. 

“The Reim Empire will not take part in this ridiculous-“  
“Well, how about this. Whoever becomes one of their masters will also become responsible for any crimes they commit under their watch- that should be a satisfying incentive for them to make sure they behave.”

Kouha bared his teeth angrily. “We aren’t pets.”  
“Shush.” Hakuei admonished quietly, keeping her ear pressed to the wall between the adjacent room and the one they were in.

“I’m not interested in taking responsibility for a Metal Vessel user who could turn on me at any moment, much less a magi.”  
“Me neither, but the servants are free labor.”  
“Just let them die.”  
“Wait a second, they might be listening to us right n-“

They all backed away from the adjoining wall as quickly and quietly as they could. After that, there was a tension-filled, silent half hour before heads jerked up as Alibaba burst in. 

“H-Hakuryuu,” he panted. “You- will you let me-!”

He made a helpless, inarticulate noise, his hands flapping uselessly. Everyone stared at him. Morgiana slipped into the room with a little sigh, and spoke bluntly for him.

“The alliance leaders said they would let you all live if you have someone taking responsibility for you. But it’s a little like being a slave. Alibaba-san wouldn’t treat you like that… so… it depends on the person.” Hakuryuu paused for a second, his eyes wide. Kouha interjected before he could reply to Alibaba’s offer.

“Wait, so we’re going to be split up and treated like slaves?” he snapped angrily. Morgiana didn’t respond. Her eyes were fixed on Alibaba and Hakuryuu. Kouha fumed at being ignored, but he settled down reluctantly when he saw no one was going to answer him, fixing his eyes on Alibaba and Hakuryuu in grudging interest.

“Uh… so… will you? I-I mean, it’s not like-”  
“I will, Alibaba-dono,” Hakuryuu interrupted, looking equally pained and amused by Alibaba’s fumbling.

“O-okay, then.” The blond boy crouched in front of Hakuryuu and pulled out Amon’s sword, using it to prick his index finger, so that a few drops of blood welled up. He pressed his finger to the pale, colorless gem embedded in the choker on Hakuryuu’s neck and held it there for a second, before it turned a deep, fiery orange color. “There, I’m done.”

He turned to Morgiana, who strode forward to the scarred prince at once without being asked and tore apart the restraints on his wrists and ankles with savage pleasure in her eyes. All three of them turned as they heard footsteps approaching the room. The door opened once again, and Sinbad strode through in all his glory, Ja’far following barely a step behind him. He stopped in front of Kouen, and they stared at each other for a few moments, Sinbad holding a cold smile on his face and Kouen’s stony look a borderline glare.

The rest of the room’s inhabitants could immediately tell the difference in the interactions between Hakuryuu and Alibaba compared to what was going on now, their rivalry showing as Sinbad silently pricked his index finger and pressed it to Kouen’s choker, still keeping that slightly condescending smile on his face. The First Prince of Kou looked like he was barely keeping himself from trying to strangle Sinbad with his bare hands, bound or not.

Sinbad’s smile became noticeably warmer as he turned and walked to crouch in front of Kougyoku, who blinked at him in wide-eyed silence, surprise written all over her face. 

“How about it, Kougyoku-chan?” he offered gently.  
“Oh. U-um, yes?” she squeaked, a bright blush coloring her cheeks. Sinbad grinned at her and extended his hand. A moment later, the contract was sealed, and her gem became a rich purple color. 

On the other side of the room, Ja’far stood in front of Koumei, who gave both him and Sinbad a calculating glance before he obligingly tipped his head back to bare the choker. His gem went a poisonous green almost as soon as Ja’far touched it, and the former assassin turned to look questioningly at Sinbad, who nodded at him.

“We’re leaving now- by the way, do any of you have an idea where Masrur went?” he turned to look questioningly at Alibaba and Morgiana. The Fanalis pointed down the hall with a shrug. “Alright then, let’s go find Masrur and he can get those chains off you!”

He turned to smile at Kougyoku, who smiled nervously back, obviously unused to having his attention so focused on her. Ja’far sighed and rubbed at his temples, thinking back to the little discussion they’d had in the hallway.

“Kouen and Kougyoku? Are you sure?” he questioned Sinbad. “Not Judal?”  
“Hmm…? Yes, of course, why not? And Judal… I have to admit that Judal is too much for me to take care of when in addition to Kouen.”  
“Kouen I can understand, but why Kougyoku?”  
“I suppose I’m paying the poor girl back for all the help she gave us, unintended though it might have been,” Sinbad smiled sheepishly. Ja’far gave him a dry look.  
“Forgive me if I don’t believe that’s your only reason.”   
“It’ll be fun for me to see Kouen’s face when he’s being ignored,” snickered the king, and Ja’far shook his head in exasperation, knowing that probably still wasn’t the reason and that Sinbad wouldn’t tell him until he was ready.  
“Really, Sin…” He trailed off. “Actually, never mind. I don’t care anymore. Just… don’t do anything too disastrous.”

In the back of the room, Judal’s hands fell limply into his lap, his face white and blank as paper as he realized Sinbad wasn’t going to bond with him. He’d been banking on Sinbad wanting a magi, even if they were currently powerless, under his thumb- if Sinbad didn’t take him, it was quite probable that no one would.

While Sinbad, Ja’far, and their newly bonded companions left the room, Hakuryuu turned to Alibaba. “Ah… if you wouldn’t mind… I believe my sister would be the safest with you… I… would you…”

It was utterly awkward to voluntarily suggest that his sister be essentially enslaved to someone else, but Hakuryuu was fairly confident that Alibaba wouldn’t even think about doing things to his sister or himself, let alone actually follow through with them.

“Er… Hakuei, right?” Alibaba nodded at Hakuryuu and turned to Hakuei somewhat uncertainly, a questioning expression in his eyes as he extended his still bleeding hand in her direction. “Are you alright with this…? I mean…”

“…I …Yes, I am.” Hakuei’s face firmed as she tilted her head back for Alibaba to press his finger there. Morgiana ripped her chains off with no less satisfaction than she had for Hakuryuu, and helped her to her feet.

“Are you injured?” The Fanalis enquired, and the other female shook her head confidently.

“Kouen-sama healed us of any serious wounds before they bound our magoi. I have a few bruises, but those can heal on their own.”

“I have a good bruise balm in my room…” Their voices faded out as they got further away, and then the remaining members of Kou were left there, waiting anxiously for anyone who might come.

“Do you know anyone who might come for you?” Judal asked the crimson-haired teen. His tone was uncharacteristically subdued, which made Kouha look over in slight concern at the magi who was still sitting pale and shaken in the corner.

“…No, or at least, I don’t think so.” Kouha flopped onto his back and stared at the ceiling. “I don’t want to die yet, obviously, but I have a reputation for being pretty bloodthirsty. I don’t think anyone would take me in, but at least everyone else is safe. What about you?”

Judal shifted to a more comfortable position, looking down at his bound hands.

“The only one who would’ve done it was Sinbad, and you can see what came of that,” he snorted derisively. He was famously uncontrollable- Sinbad must have thought it was too much of a risk to bond him. 

Normally, they might have talked a little, but the thought of their impending deaths effectively killed any hope for conversation, unlike the other royals who were whispering anxiously to one another as the minutes slipped away and they got closer and closer to midnight- when the collars would completely drain their magoi and leave them nothing more than husks. 

As time passed, people continued to come in and bond to the various members of the Kou government, sometimes willingly for those who had friendly connections outside of the Kou Empire, but it was often a silent and resentful affair. 

There was one terrible incident where one of the maids had screamed and struggled uselessly until a soldier backhanded her, and she submitted with tears streaming down her face. None of them had been able to help her, whether they wanted to or not. 

And so, the hours ticked by, until it was just Kouha and Judal left in the room. More than a few people had come in, seen that they were the only two remaining, and left immediately. Kouha had been called insane more than a few times (just like his mother) for his blood thirst and gathering of strays, and Judal had wreaked havoc across almost every single country they had fought against- no one would risk having to take responsibility for that. (Unless they were Sinbad)

Fifteen minutes before midnight, they heard soft footsteps pattering down the corridor outside. Kouha sat up hopefully, but after the fifth false alarm in a row Judal hadn’t bothered trying anymore, just sitting with his head on his knees. The door creaked open, and a single bright blue eye peeked in uncertainly.

“Kouha-kun?” Aladdin opened the door fully, his face showing open surprise at the other boy’s presence. 

“A-ah! You’re Aladdin, from Magnostadt!” Kouha exclaimed, eyes wide in shock. “You…you grew!”

And it was true- after four years of only seeing him in bare glimpses far away on the battlefield; it was rather shocking to find that Aladdin at sixteen years old was barely a hair shorter than Judal, which made him around even with Koumei and a full head taller than Kouha. The resemblance to his father Solomon was uncanny, especially as his features narrowed and he lost the last vestiges of his baby fat. 

The war had left it’s mark on Aladdin, like it had on everyone else, and there was a dark, jagged scar on his cheek; but despite this there was not a single dark rukh in the fluttering, singing mass around him. His power had grown as he matured, and even the magicless Kouha could sense the slow, immense power roiling around him- coiled like sleeping dragon, battle-ready and prepared to lash out at a moments notice.

“Alibaba-kun is still taller than me though,” Aladdin looked a little disappointed at this, but forged on to ask, “Why are you still here, Kouha-kun? I thought that someone would have come by now?”

“No, I don’t really know anyone here,” shrugged the redhead, averting his eyes. “What are you doing, coming here at such a late time?”

Aladdin smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head with one hand.

“I’ve been out chasing Al-Thamen with Titus and the Fanalis Corps from Reim,” he admitted. “I didn’t really mean to come back this late, but I was just checking to see if there was anyone left. Ah! - I could bond with you, unless you have someone already coming. It was meant to be just King Vessels and their household who could do that, but apparently a magi is powerful enough as well.”

The offer was surprising, but after a second of sheer stupefaction Kouha realized it really shouldn’t have been. After all, Aladdin was probably the kindest person he knew, outside of Hakuei… possibly…maybe… He couldn’t really compare.

“No one else is coming,” he confessed with a weary sigh. 

“All right then, I can do it,” Aladdin pulled a short knife from his belt and sliced his finger open, then pressed it against the gem on the choker. A few seconds later, the jewel in the choker went the same bright gold as the light rukh around the blue-eyed magi. 

It was ten minutes to midnight.

Aladdin and Kouha both turned to look- one worried and one wary- at Judal, who remained sullenly hunched in his corner, not looking at them. When Aladdin thought of Judal, the first thing that came to mind was Ugo’s death and the other magi’s dark, dark rukh, which were fluttering confusedly about him. But there were also flashes of the lonely little child who had been brought up by Al-Thamen, never knowing love or affection other than what the rukh gave him.

“Jugeru? Do you want me to bond you?” The words were almost unwillingly tumbling out of his mouth, and Aladdin’s thoughts were a whirling jumble of whatareyoudoinghekilledUgo but he kept his hand extended to Judal, who was staring at him like he couldn’t quite decide whether to start calling him stupid or to be grateful.

“My name is Judal,” he finally scowled as he tipped his head back to let Aladdin press his finger to it. “Use it.”

 

As they moved away from the room that had become a makeshift prison and a near execution ground, both Kouha and Judal slowly relaxed, the tension bleeding from their rigid backs and stiffened limbs. 

It was five minutes to midnight.

Aladdin guided them through the corridors quickly, only pausing a few times at the places where the corridor split as he tried to recall the way to the room he’d been assigned in what remained of the Kou Palace after the weeklong siege. 

They made a few more turns, until they reached what Kouha recognized as the guest wing of the palace and entered a spacious room, which looked as though Aladdin hadn’t touched other than to place his bag and some food on the table. 

“Make yourselves at home,” the magi told them. “I’ll go ask if we can get some hammocks set up, but before that-“

It was midnight.   
Both Kouha and Judal fell to their knees, clutching at their heads as dark rukh poured from the collars. Aladdin leapt back in shock, brandishing his staff in front of him as his magic thrummed threateningly around it. 

There were cries of shock around the palace as the bonded suddenly turned on their masters.

Kouha backed away from Aladdin and sat down heavily on the floor as he tried to resist the sudden impulse to kill the blue-haired magi, pressing his hands against his ringing ears uselessly. 

On the other hand, Judal only hesitated for a mere instant, but managed to cry out in a sort of half-hearted warning before he bodily launched himself at Aladdin, years of training by Al-Thamen taking over with ease as his eyes went blank. Luckily, his magoi was bound, so he couldn’t rely on his usual attack of offensive magic, and he was still chained, so Aladdin managed to evade the first attack with ease and deflect the second one.

If they had been fighting like this while Aladdin was younger, he might have had difficulties, as he had been more than a little physically weak at the time and like now, he would not have been able to use too much magic for fear of harming Judal too badly. 

But he had been keeping to Myers’ teachings and kept from being too dependent on his magic, making sure to train his body every day so that he didn’t get out of practice. Alibaba had made a valiant attempt at teaching him the art of the sword, but it turned out horribly- he had nearly fallen straight onto the sharp end of the sword and gutted himself by the first lesson, so they had abandoned that line of thinking quickly.

Judal’s body staggered over to the bathroom and came back out with a razor blade clutched in one hand; while he did that, Aladdin skirted carefully around Kouha, who was still gripping his head with shaking hands, and snatched up his long, metallic staff.

Matal Mogammet’s wand had served him well, but after a particularly grueling battle three years into the war, it cracked straight down the middle and he had had to get it replaced. The remains had been given to Yamraiha, who carried them with her everywhere she went.

“Hadika Hadeka,” he incanted, making sure to put much less magoi than was normal into the staff- he definitely didn’t want to turn Judal or Kouha into dust, but with this little magoi it would work well to knock them out.

Gently, he extended the staff and tapped Kouha on the back of the head. Instantly, his strained features relaxed into unconsciousness and he fell forward, the compulsion the collar was sending him dissipating as he crumpled limply to the ground.

Then he was forced to bring the staff around to bear once more as Judal leapt at him again, this time with a weapon- the magi was unexpectedly fast and moved with an unnatural ease that he didn’t have normally. Was it an effect of the compulsion? 

Aladdin lashed out with his wand again, the two magi engaging in a fast paced battle that inevitably ended up with Aladdin sending the other flying into a wall with an Asfal Riih and then knocking him unconscious.

“Aah, I think I went overboard with that Asfal Riih,” sighed Aladdin, looking embarrassed even though no one was there to see it. “He’ll have bruises from that later. Oh- I need to check on the others and make sure they’re alright…”

A bit of Earth magic later, Judal and Kouha were both firmly held against the wall with stone shackles just in case they woke up again and tried to attack someone, and Aladdin was sprinting out the door.

 

With the strength of the Fanalis and Alibaba’s superior swordsmanship, Hakuryuu and Hakuei had been easily pinned down, as their movements had been halting and hesitant, both of them resisting the compulsion as much as they could.

Aladdin met them halfway down the corridor as they were leaving the rooms to check on the others just like him, having tied the two up with the ripped remains of the curtains at the windows.

“What’s going on?” Alibaba panted as the three continued to run and subdue as many of the collared Kou citizens as possible, leaving them unconscious and either shackled with stone or tied up creatively in some other way.

“It looks like the collars are putting a compulsion on them to attack people who aren’t wearing a collar,” Aladdin answered. “I didn’t see any of them attacking each other.”

They burst into Ja’far’s room just as he subdued Koumei, only to see him looking somewhat disappointed as he tightened the wires around Koumei’s thin wrists.

“That… was ridiculously easy… and somewhat pathetic,” he muttered. “I feel a little like a bully… I guess he really isn’t meant for battle.”

The three of them exchanged a glance- Ja’far obviously didn’t need help- and continued onwards. In some cases, they had to do emergency damage control as the fights knocked over burning lamps, or in a few incidents actually physically subdue the master to keep them from harming the bonded to badly.

Sinbad’s room was all the way on the other side of the palace- as soon as the compulsion on Kougyoku activated, Zepar’s power utterly eradicated it, leaving her in a deep sleep on the ground. On the other hand, he’d had a bit of trouble with Kouen, not quite able to subdue him properly but also very far from letting Kouen hurt him as well.

In the end, Masrur heard them fighting six rooms over and easily took Kouen down- even with the strange boost from the collar the first prince couldn’t hope to match up to a Fanalis in terms of physical capability.

By the time the three of them peeked in, the issue was already taken care of, with the two already bound and Sinbad gone to check on the others. When everything had been taken care of, a meeting was held and it was found there were three causalities- two masters and a collared- and more than a few injuries.   
It was also found that once knocked unconscious, the compulsion would dissipate and they would presumably be fine until the next midnight. However, the bonded who had been sleeping at midnight seemed to be unaffected by the compulsion- none of them had attacked their ‘masters’.  
Sinbad was, of course, optimistic.

“Well, all we have to do is make sure that they’re sleeping before midnight, right?” he beamed.

Others… not so much.

“I told you we should have gotten rid of them!”

“This is a plot of Al-Thamen!”

“We already know that!”

“That bitch tried to stab me with my own sword!”

“I’m going to give him the beating of a lifetime for this!”

Despite the many complaints, no one actually gave up their bonded, although there were some very disturbing threats of physical violence in retribution for that night. Aladdin made a mental note to check up on them later, just in case. It wouldn’t be the worst thing that could happen, but it ranked pretty high up on the list.

Now, he just had to get back to Kouha and Judal and make sure they weren’t still under the compulsion. It was fairly unlikely, but it never hurt to check.


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Magi does not belong to me.
> 
> A/N:  
> It’s a little shorter than last time, but it’s exams year ^^; I have an excuse!
> 
> Warnings:  
> Slavery (sort of), foul language, romantic relationships between males (though not for quite some time or maybe not at all), potential OOC…please tell me if there’s something I forgot…

Previously:  
Despite the many complaints, no one actually gave up their bonded, although there were some very disturbing threats of physical violence in retribution for that night. Aladdin made a mental note to check up on them later, just in case. It wouldn’t be the worst thing that could happen, but it ranked pretty high up on the list.

Now, he just had to get back to Kouha and Judal and make sure they weren’t still under the compulsion. It was fairly unlikely, but it never hurt to check.

 

Meanwhile, Kouha woke with a jolt to find himself pinned to the wall with shackles of heavy stone around his limbs and waist. Next to him, Judal was unconscious, with bruises forming all along his abdomen and in the same predicament.

He struggled against the manacles in silent panic for a few minutes as he realized he couldn’t remember a thing beyond a voice telling him to kill Aladdin- then nothing. Had he actually tried to kill the magi, or really killed him? That would explain the sudden imprisonment. Shit, had he actually killed Aladdin? This was bad. Really, really bad.

His frantic thoughts were interrupted as Aladdin stepped through the door, perking up upon seeing he was awake.

“Kouha-kun! Are you back yet?” he asked cheerfully, his smiling face taking the edge off of the appearance of his staff being quite suddenly brandished in front of him.

“A-am I… what? When was I away?” Okay, that was good- he hadn’t killed Aladdin.

“Ah, so you’re back!” Kouha didn’t flinch- really, he didn’t- when Aladdin first swung his wand sharply towards his neck, shattering the rock shackle there. The young magi proceeded to destroy the rest of his bindings, making sure to leave the waist for last, and caught Kouha as he fell.

“What happened?” he asked anxiously. “Why was I tied up?”

“You and Judal- and everyone else- were under a compulsion from the collars. It looks like it activates at midnight, and it makes you all try to kill anyone without a collar until you’re knocked unconscious, or unless you’re sleeping at the time,” explained Aladdin, setting him down gently on the floor. The differences in their heights were suddenly very obvious- despite the fact that Kouha could probably lift Aladdin more easily than Aladdin could lift him. “I can’t let Judal down until he wakes up though, cause I don’t know if he’ll still be under the compulsion.”

“What about my siblings? Mei? En? Are they hurt?” Kouha swayed where he stood, eyes wide with confusion. “And did you do something to me? I can’t balance properly for some reason.”

“I used Hadika Hadeka to knock you out, so your senses might be a little messed up for a while,” Aladdin told him with a slightly guilty look on his face. “All your siblings are fine… Kouen-oji-san is a little banged up though… and your pretty servants are alright too.”

“B-banged up?!” Kouha sputtered indignantly, his face a mask of disbelief. “Y-you can’t- En-nii wouldn’t be banged up by the likes of Sinbad, he’s strong-“

“Yes, but not stronger than Masrur,” explained Aladdin patiently. Kouha blinked, paused, and wisely shut up. It would be a surefire way to lose a debate arguing that his brother was stronger than a Fanalis when his magoi was sealed and he didn’t have any of his metal vessels.

“Hey!” They turned to see Judal twisting and thrashing, trying to wriggle out of his shackles. “Lemme go, you damn Chibi!”

“Ah, Judal-kun is back too!” beamed Aladdin, hastily stepping over to free the other magi from the stone cuffs and staggering unsteadily under his weight when he fell, not quite able to catch him as he did Kouha. The prince watched with great amusement as Aladdin toppled over and they fell into a tangle on the floor.

“Ouch! Get your elbow out of my ribs! They’re bruised, you know!”

“I-I can’t, you’re lying on me! And your braid is choking me!”

“Well, your braid is caught on mine! I can’t get off you-!” Judal suddenly squeaked, his eyes going wide with agony as Aladdin’s knee slammed into a very uncomfortable place. Kouha choked and heaved, gasping for breath, unable to stop laughing as the dark magi shrieked in pain and anger, trying to hit Aladdin but only getting the two of them more tangled with his futile efforts.

It wasn’t as funny a moment later, when the door opened and there was a cry of alarm from the person standing there before wires were wrapping around him and Judal, restricting any movement from either of them and indirectly keeping Aladdin from moving as well.

Only then did he realize just how the situation would look to an observer, with Judal trying to hit Aladdin and with his braid wrapped around Aladdin’s neck while Kouha laughed.

“Aladdin! Are you alright?!” Ja’far questioned, his eyes narrowed and angry as he tightened the wires around the two collared. “And why did you take these two of all people? They’re the worst of the lot!”

“A-ah, Ja’far! It’s not what you think!” Aladdin yelped hastily. “Don’t hurt them!”

“…Judal was trying to kill you no matter what way I look at it,” Ja’far stated flatly, obviously unimpressed with what he believed was a cover-up. “Don’t try to protect them, Aladdin. You’re too nice.”

“No, really, you’ve got it all wrong!” Aladdin protested frantically, managing to unwrap Judal’s braid from around his neck and wriggle out from underneath him now that he was staying still. “I was just getting him down from the wall and we got a little tangled up, you know?”

Ja’far still looked a little disbelieving, but upon seeing that Aladdin appeared to be mostly uninjured he sighed in resignation and retracted his blades. 

“…If you’re sure,” he turned to give the two he had just freed a poisonous glare. “Don’t let me find you like this again though.”

Judal returned his glare resentfully, but Kouha’s gaze was even more hostile as he recognized the blood-spattered advisor as the one who had bonded Koumei – who was conspicuously absent.

“Where’s Mei-nii?! What have you done to him, you snake?” The young prince demanded anxiously, his mind whirling through all sorts of theories. Sinbad’s silver haired advisor was rumored to be amicable on the outside but horrifyingly cruel once you went somewhere in private with him. He had been cast in all sorts of roles from Sinbad’s private torturer, his informant, his spy- everything.

“Kouha-!” Aladdin looked ready to pull his own braid out. He had hoped Ja’far would see that Kouha wasn’t actually all that bad despite his reputation, but the redhead really wasn’t helping.

“Your brother is perfectly fine,” Ja’far started, only to be interrupted by Kouha, who was not at all reassured.

“Then why is there blood all over you?!”

“About that- Aladdin, we need you by the south gates as soon as possible. We fended off another black djinn, but there are more than a few injuries so we’d like some healers there.” The freckled advisor stated solemnly, turning away from Kouha after obviously deciding that he was too irrational to speak with at the moment.

The young magi’s entire demeanor changed instantly upon hearing the news, and snatching up his staff, he made for the door at a run. However, he stopped just before he was out of view.

“Ja’far, can you help me get some hammocks for them to sleep in?” he jabbered quickly, waiting till Ja’far nodded to continue down that corridor at his previous pace. “Thanks!”

The remaining people in the room were left in an awkward silence as the sounds of Aladdin’s footsteps faded away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N:  
> Again, please tell me if there’s something you think I can improve. I’m sort of loving Ja’far right now, there are so many ways you can describe him… like “advisor” “freckled”, etc. Unlike Judal, who can only be called “magi” which doesn’t always make for variety since Aladdin is a magi too ^^;
> 
> FireLark


	3. Chapter Three

Aladdin ran as fast as he could through the palace, skidding around corners - why was this place such a maze? How did anyone ever get around? – and trying to remember the fastest way to the south gate. When that failed, he opted to find the nearest window instead, jumping out into open air and flying southwards.

He could easily tell where to go from the way fire and smoke was billowing up in plumes, the gate a wreckage of burnt wood and twisted steel. As he got closer, he could see the scorching flames of Alibaba’s metal vessel still flaring and blazing brightly as the small, bright figure darted amongst the shadowy forms of the six remaining dark djinn.

There was a loud explosion as Morgiana used her household vessel to great effect, taking out two of the djinn in one go and keeping Alibaba from being crushed underneath a giant fist. For a moment, he wondered why Ja’far had left the scene of battle to find him, but after another survey of the area he realized that Sinbad wasn’t there, so Ja’far would have been unable to activate his household vessel.

Seeing as Alibaba and Morgiana appeared to have the dark djinn under control, he turned to the situation behind the remainder of the gate and almost threw up. No matter how many times he saw the consequences of an attack by Al- Thamen, he couldn’t quite get used to it, not that he really wanted to. 

Aladdin dreaded the time when he could look at devastation like this and be numb to it, whether it was convenient or not, because it would mean the loss of a certain part of him that empathized with the pain of others- and he had already suppressed too many of his instincts. The ones that cried, “You can’t go to war! Don’t hurt them! There’s a person inside that djinn, a person! We can save them!”

He still tried to save the ones who had fallen into depravity enough to become dark djinn, but too often it was a choice between the life of the one in the djinn or the lives of many others, the innocents who were trying to defend their homes and their lives. When that happened, he would always, always save the innocents first.

Too often. Like now. Aladdin descended lightly to the bloodstained ground, gently closing the eyes of a soldier who had the lower part of his torso crushed – probably under the foot of a dark djinn. He moved on quickly though, unable to spend time on the dead when the living were in need of aid. 

Sphintus was already there, and beads of sweat were dripping down his face as he healed two men simultaneously. When he noticed Aladdin he gave the magi a grim smile and jerked his head in the direction of a group of soldiers not quite as seriously injured as the ones he was keeping from death, but still in need of immediate healing. 

Aladdin let out a little sigh of relief when he noticed there weren’t any serious internal injuries in the group of wounded Sphintus had assigned to him- he had none of the white haired teen’s delicate touch in the area of healing, but managed as a battlefield medic due to his capability to overpower the spells enough for an immediate healing.  
It had saved everyone’s their lives at one point or the other, although once the injured were transported out of the site of immediate danger, the wound generally had to be opened again for a more delicate healing.

“Yoah Reg.” It was the most basic of healing magics that generally only cured fatigue and healed minuscule cells, but pumping enough magoi into it allowed Aladdin to heal serious wounds. It was also the only Life Magic spell that he knew.

There was another explosion and Aladdin expanded his Borg to shield Sphintus and the other soldiers from the wave of dust and bits of debris that came flying at them. Alibaba called out a hurried apology from above them before easing seamlessly into a pincer formation with Morgiana that took down the last djinn.

The two of them didn’t bother celebrating their victory; instead, Alibaba got to work applying what he knew of basic first aid, while Morgiana sprinted in the direction of the palace to get water and bandages. At this point, it was a practiced routine- a single second could mean the difference between life and death.

“Alibaba-san.” Morgiana was already back, balancing a bucket of water under each arm and cradling a bundle of cloth. Sphintus let out a noise that could have been interpreted as a thanks and went back to work, while Alibaba gratefully snatched up the bandages.

“Ah! Morg, do you know whether the medical squad will be here soon?” Aladdin asked, continuing to maintain the Life Magic even as he turned to look at her.

“Yes. I passed them on my way back. They should be here soon,” The Fanalis responded solemnly. The magi let out a little sigh of relief.

“That’s goo-!”  
“Oi, Aladdin! I need you over here now!” Sphintus called, waving at a man with part of the gate on top of him, and twisted lengths of metal piercing his shoulder and gut.  
“Sphintus, you know I’m not good at internal injuries…”  
“Yes, yes, that’s fine. Just keep him alive while I heal him. He’s the last of the ones who might die on us; the medic squad can heal the rest. Morgiana-san, you too.” The two of them moved over hurriedly, standing to either side of the injured man as Sphintus gave them instructions. “Okay, on the count of three, Morgiana will lift up the gate, then Aladdin, start with the Yoah Reg immediately. Don’t start before Morgiana lifts the gate, we don’t want him healing around it.”

They positioned themselves around the weakly moaning man.

“Ready? One, two, three!” With a great heave, Morgiana lifted the entirety of the wreckage off the man. She strained for a moment, and then managed to push it all back before letting it fall with a thunderous crash.

“Yoah Reg!” Aladdin chanted, the patient quickly slipping into a deep sleep.

“It’s worse than I thought,” groaned Sphintus. “His spine is broken too…”

Aladdin concentrated on keeping the man from bleeding out, and avoided healing the wound in his gut or the break in his spine; those he would leave to Sphintus. They were so focused that they never noticed the medical squad arriving two minutes later, nor Morgiana occasionally coming over to feed them some water.

A full hour later they both sat back.

“He’s… alive, at least…?” The words ended with an uncertain little lilt.  
“Yeah. But he’ll never walk again.” They both stared at the young – so young, he was barely out of his teens- man who would never again be able to stand on his own two legs. A second after, they jumped and turned as Morgiana put her hands on their shoulders.

“You can’t do everything. He’s alive, and he’ll go back home to his family.” Aladdin managed a trembling little smile, leaning into the reassuring comfort of her hand as on her other side, Sphintus’ tense shoulders relaxed with a heavy sigh.

“He’s alive. We did the best we could.”


	4. Chapter Four

Aladdin trudged wearily through the corridors with his eyes lowered to the ground, the deaths of the soldiers in the south gate battle weighing heavily on his chest. 

At times like this, he was thankful for Morgiana’s straightforward way of saying things – the halfhearted attempts at comfort of the medical squad did nothing but make him feel worse. Unlike the medics, who skirted carefully around the subject of those he could not save, the young Fanalis bluntly acknowledged his failure and in spite of that, continued to comfort him.  
He continued walking, backtracking twice when he realized he was going the wrong way, and finally resorting to asking the rukh to help guide him back to his room. However, he had completely forgotten the fact that he had guests, and walked straight into the room without bothering to try and clean himself up first.

Thus, it was quite the shock to him when there was a gasp of surprise and a thud, accompanied by an “oof!” of complaint as Kouha jerked up in shock at his blood-soaked clothes and promptly tumbled out of the hammock.

“Aah… Kouha-kun, you shouldn’t move around that much in a hammock… or that will happen,” Aladdin told him a little belatedly, a reluctant smile tugging at the corners of his lips when the Third Prince sat up dazedly.

There was a snort from Judal, who was lounging on an adjacent hammock, stretched out like a great cat relaxing in the sun.

“What took you so long, Chibi? Freckles over there refused to leave until you came back, and how the hell was I supposed to sleep with him glaring at me all the time?”

“My name is Aladdin,” the teen informed him patiently, before continuing without the slightest trace of having heard the rest of Judal’s question. “I need to wash myself off – “ 

He made a vague motion at his crimson-stained front sheepishly. Ja’far smiled slightly, waving him towards the bathroom without him needing to ask.

“Don’t worry Aladdin, I can watch them for you a little longer.”

“Ah… but don’t you need to sleep? And you left Koumei-san alone, right?”

“I’ll be absolutely fine,” Ja’far smiled sweetly, handing Aladdin his bag. “You needn’t fret over Koumei, he won’t be taking a single step from that room.”

Aladdin quickly nodded in the affirmative, taking the bag, and scampered into the bathroom, closing the door behind him with a little laugh as he heard Kouha start yelling again, undoubtedly at the supposed threat to his older brother, and Judal letting out a loud groan of irritation at the noise. Knowing Ja’far, the Second Prince was perfectly safe and the advisor was doing just to aggravate Judal that little bit more. 

It had been made quite clear to everyone who had seen Ja’far in the war that he reserved a special dislike just for the dark magi – and of course, that animosity was enthusiastically retaliated, both of them getting even worse when Sinbad was around. 

In spite of that, Aladdin had no worries as to the safety of Judal or Kouha when Ja’far was around – the man took his responsibilities seriously, and he would not allow them to be harmed, nor would he let them harm others while he was anywhere close to them.

The first thing he did before even taking off his bloody clothes was to clean and polish the golden flute, going over it with a scrap of cloth and making sure that the metal wasn’t scratched or dented. He would have left it somewhere it wouldn’t be so easily damaged, but it wasn’t like he actually had a home; not to mention it was the last thing he had of Ugo.

When it had been cleaned of every trace of blood, he turned to look thoughtfully at the dividing screen. In Sindria, one generally either heated their own baths with magic, or they had a servant draw them a hot bath instead. He found himself more than a little curious as to how people bathed in the Kou Empire, and let out a little noise of appreciation when he peeked around the screen to find a pool of steaming water, surrounded by ornamental flagstones. They had a hot spring. 

He was quick to get into the water after that, the blood on his front staining the water a pale pink before it was washed away by the stream of water going through the pool. Unfortunately, he couldn’t soak too long, the persistent loud noises from the other room a constant reminder that it wasn’t a good idea to keep them waiting for too long.

When there was what sounded like a minor explosion, he quickly jumped out of the bath and shook himself off. Leaving his bloodied clothes to soak at the edge of the bath, he changed quickly into the fresh set of pants in his bag and threw the door open.  
Three heads turned to stare at him in unison, with expressions of utter innocence on their faces. Strangely enough, Kouha was actually lying on the floor instead of in his own hammock.

“Is there something the matter, Aladdin?” Ja’far asked him, with one eyebrow raised. The magi looked around in confusion, noticing that all of them seemed to be unhurt, and that the room wasn’t damaged in any way.

“No…I thought I heard an explosion…” The magi admitted in a perplexed manner. “I guess I was just imagining it…”

He retreated back into the washroom to finish dressing, still looking somewhat befuddled. As soon as the door closed, Ja’far let out a little sigh; pulling the shredded remains of the pillow that Judal had thrown at him from behind his back.

Kouha sat up slowly to reveal that he had been lying on top of a collection of down and feathers.

“That was a close one…” the prince groaned in relief. “If we hadn’t heard him getting out of the bath…”

“Pass me the feathers before he comes back out,” the advisor hissed quietly, holding the remains of the pillowcase open. “And why don’t you help, Judal? This is your fault in the first place!”

“Well, if you had just let it hit you…” Judal retorted lazily, rolling his eyes. “I don’t see why you had to rip it to shreds and send feathers flying everywhere.”

Ja’far suppressed a violent twitch, reminding himself that Judal was powerless and effectively defenseless at the moment, and that it absolutely wouldn’t do to kill him. To be honest, he was already paranoid from being in the same room as the dark magi for so long; the littlest thing could probably set him off, and wartime reflexes weren’t helping at all.

Just as Kouha finished frantically stuffing the last feathers into the punctured pillowcase, they heard a rustle and soft footsteps approaching the bathroom door. Quickly, Ja’far rolled the feathers and cloth into a bundle and tucked it into his robes, before turning to smile at Aladdin as he came out of the washroom. The youth smiled back brightly, thanking him for his time even as Ja’far made to leave. 

“It’s no problem at all, Aladdin. You can call me if you ever need help with them, although I can’t promise that I won’t be busy.”

‘Such a sweet boy.’ The advisor found himself thinking as he walked back to the room he would be sleeping in whilst they stayed in Kou. When he slid the door open, he found Koumei staring flatly back at him, his hands still bound to one of the bedposts.

“Could you untie me now?”

“Ah… right.”


	5. Chapter Five

Aladdin made his way over to the torch in the corner of the room.

“Kouha-kun, you should get back into the hammock while you can still see. I’m putting out the torches.” 

“Finally.” Judal complained. “It’s way past midnight, you know.”

“It’s too bad we’re all sleeping in hammocks,” Kouha commented offhandedly as he hopped onto his own hammock, nearly falling out of it on the other end due to his excessive force when sitting down. “Else we could all just cuddle on the same bed.”

Aladdin blinked at him in shock. Used to Kouha’s antics, Judal turned to face away from him with a very audible exhale. “You never give up, do you?”

“Eeh?! Kouha-kun does that too?” Aladdin cried excitedly as he clambered into his own hammock next to Judal’s with a groan, finally relaxing into the cloth after the stressful day. The other magi choked. “I thought no one else did it… And Hakuryuu got really angry at Alibaba for some reason when he said me and him and Mor-san all slept in the same bed in Sindria.”

“That’s cause he’s a prude! He’d never even think about sleeping in the same bed as someone else!” cackled Kouha wickedly.

“Really? I didn’t notice, maybe-“

Caught between them as the two re-established the rapport they had had during their journey to Magnostadt, Judal’s patience lasted another measly thirty seconds before he finally snapped, regardless of whether he was a prisoner or not.

“Solomon damn it, let me sleep!”

Meanwhile, with Alibaba, Morgiana, Hakuryuu and Hakuei…

“W-what? W-w-we’re all going to share a bed?” Hakuryuu spluttered, his face red with embarrassment.

“Yeah, they ran out of hammocks. But it’s a big bed, so we should be fine.” Alibaba responded cheerfully, taking off his shoes. Morgiana was already sitting on the bed, in her sleepwear and looking very ready to fall asleep.

“That’s not the problem here!” 

“…What is it then? If you’re worried about Morgiana kicking in her sleep and breaking your bones, don’t be; she sleeps like a log.” Alibaba told them matter of factly. Hakuryuu mouthed wordlessly at him, seemingly unable to speak through sheer incredulity.

“Ah… Alibaba-san… how long will this arrangement be lasting?” Hakuei questioned gently, looking a little worried.

“Mmm… they said they’d be able to start making us hammocks as soon as the canvas shipment arrived tomorrow, so… today and tomorrow.” The blond told them, seemingly oblivious to the other boy’s utter horror. 

He was more preoccupied with reminiscing about the way he, Kassim and Mariam had slept this exact same way while they were children; although they of course had not had the luxury of a big bed like this one, or a bed at all to be honest.

Hakuei patted her younger brother on the back in an attempt at comforting him.

“Come now, it isn’t that bad… most boys would jump at the chance to sleep in the same bed as a pretty girl, you know,” she smiled teasingly.

He looked like he was about to protest more, but Alibaba and Morgiana simultaneously reached out and yanked him onto the bed, already having expected this despite the fact that they hadn’t seen each other in nearly four years. 

“Help me keep him down, Morgiana!” grinned Alibaba mischievously, straining to hold the writhing, squirming Hakuryuu still.

Morgiana nodded, turning to throw an arm and leg over Hakuryuu at the same time her friend did, effectively trapping the struggling fourth prince between them. 

Hakuei couldn’t quite suppress the little giggle she let out at the sight of her red-faced, spluttering younger brother sandwiched between the redhead and blond, unable to get free.

“Not you too, Aneue!” wailed Hakuryuu, his eyes watering. “Help me!”

“Now if I did that, you’d never go to sleep, would you?” The princess chuckled, lying down on Morgiana’s other side and pulling the blanket over herself. “Just relax, it’s only for two nights anyways.”

“Say that when you’re the one being squashed by these two!” Hakuryuu squawked indignantly, giving one last thrash before subsiding sulkily. “I wonder if anyone else has to do this…”

In Ja’far and Koumei’s temporary room…

As he deftly unwound the crimson strings from around Koumei’s wrists, Ja’far told him in an impassive tone, “We will have to sleep on the same bed tonight, since it appears they’ve run out of hammocks. The last ones went to Aladdin, Kouha and Judal since they didn’t have a bed.”  
Koumei stared disinterestedly at the ceiling, looking half – or rather mostly – like he wanted to fall asleep.

“I don’t mind. Kouha is doing alright?” he mumbled quietly.

“Oh, he’s being absolutely perfect,” Ja’far snarled, the cutting tone to his voice and the abrupt tightening of the half-undone rope around his wrists making Koumei twist around to glance at him in sudden alarm. “Unlike Judal, that miserable little…”

With every word he said, the string tightened a little bit more until Koumei was wincing and trying to get free. “H-hey-!”

Ja’far wasn’t paying attention to the noises of pain the second prince was making underneath him, his previously jet-black eyes suddenly a dark, narrowed grey. From what Koumei could tell, he was putting off more than a little murderous intent, obviously imagining what he wanted to do to Judal.

The redhead was starting to seriously reconsider how safe he was under the care of Sinbad’s advisor. Initially he had agreed to go with Ja’far seeing as he appeared to be relatively mild-mannered, and was unlikely to treat him badly, not to mention being very close to Kouen’s bonded ‘master’. 

Unfortunately, he was having quite a few of his assumptions proved wrong- and it wasn’t like he could suddenly decide to switch carers right now. Briefly, he contemplated whether the rumor that Ja’far had seven horns and could breathe fire was actually true, then decided against it. With how angry he was acting, the white haired man would have started breathing fire by now if he actually could.

Just as the pressure on his wrists started to become serious pain, Ja’far suddenly let go and hastily stepped back, his eyes back to a clear onyx. Koumei heaved out an unintentional sigh of relief.

“O-oh. My apologies, I lost control of myself for a second there. Are you… alright?” he questioned a little anxiously. 

“I… if you would untie me…?”  
Looking more than a little apologetic, Ja’far got him untied as quickly as he could, and Koumei finally sat up, rubbing his wore wrists.

“You… get angry easily, don’t you.” It wasn’t even a question.

“I’m afraid I have been a little stressed lately, and Judal isn’t helping,” there was a slight sigh, piling pillows in a straight line down the middle of the bed. “Are you bruised? We can get Aladdin to heal you if you need it.”

“Just a little, I’m alright. May I take this side?” the prince looked more eager to sleep than Ja’far had ever seen him, which was a little sad to be honest.

“Of course,” he reassured, putting out the light. “Good night.”

The only response Ja’far received was a quiet snore. That was fast.

The next morning, with Sinbad, Kouen and Kougyoku…

Kouen woke to the sound of Kougyoku shrieking in alarm. His eyes snapped wide open, and he sat up with a jolt, looking for the source of her cries.

Less than a second later, he saw the reason she was screaming and promptly flopped back down to try and go back to sleep, after curtly snapping, “King Sinbad. Wake up and put your clothes back on.”


	6. Chapter Six

“Aladdin. Aladdin, wake up. Aladdin.”

Big blue eyes fluttered open drowsily to gaze at the crimson-haired girl standing in the room, staring down at him. “…Mor-san…? Why are you here?”

“Yamuraiha-san just finished her examination of the choker from the collared who died yesterday – “ 

The three occupants of the room reacted almost in unison – evidently, Judal and Kouha had been listening in to the conversation.

“Someone died? What the hell, why didn’t you tell us?!” growled Judal irritably.

“Who died? What was their name?” blurted Kouha, looking worried.

“What did Yamu-san find?” questioned Aladdin curiously.

“- and Aladdin is to attend a meeting to be informed of the results. I will take Kouha-san and Judal-san to meet with the other…” Morgiana searched for a sufficiently non-offensive way to address the collared. “The other prisoners who have guardians at the meeting.”

She left it to Aladdin to answer their questions, and he dutifully began to do so, looking slightly uncomfortable.

“Sorry, I forgot to tell you both last night with the attack and all,” Aladdin said ruefully, one hand going to tug on his long braid in a nervous gesture. “Not everyone survived the attack from the prisoners under compulsions last night- two guardians died, and one of the bonded was killed when his guardian didn’t hold himself back enough. I think his name was Heng.”

Kouha relaxed a little bit- he hadn’t known him, had never even heard him name before, so it definitely wasn’t one of his men. Judal was… somewhat pacified; not fully, but enough to go along with Morgiana for now.

Aladdin smiled at them, then hurried to the door. “I’ll see you all later!”

The three remaining in the room waved half-heartedly after him, not that he could see it.

Dashing into the meeting room after once again getting lost, Aladdin realized that he had made it just in time and it was about to start.

“Sorry I’m late, I got lost!” he panted out sheepishly.

“Ah, Aladdin. Come in,” Ja’far waved him to a chair. “Now that everyone is here, I’ll start this off.”

He pulled a thick scroll from within the folds of his sleeve.

“We questioned the two bonded that killed their guardians on what happened and why we found every single person in the palace grounds unconscious and with chokers around their necks, and they told us that they were just going about their business as usual and they woke up with those chokers.” Ja’far glanced at the scroll again. 

“We’re assuming it was a palace wide spell by Ren Gyokuen, or a synchronized spell by many magicians in Al Thamen, since no one outside of the palace has been affected. From our initial counts, it appears there are a hundred and fifty three bonded, a hundred and fifty two now that one of them is dead. Yamuraiha will continue with her information gained from her examination of the choker from the dead prisoner.”

Yamuraiha glided to Ja’far’s side, a bundle of papers in her hand.

“It appears that the compulsion was meant to last only one night, hoping to kill some of us in a surprise attack. It looks like the choker also gives off a sort of emotionally influencing magic that heightens aggression and anger of every person in a certain radius from what we can see- it’s using the magoi of the bonded to do this, which is the reason they can’t fight like they usually do.”

There were murmurs of unease at this. Magic that influenced the emotions was forbidden and looked down upon, and to find that half the people in the palace had something that could influence their emotions was more than a little bit unsettling.

“However, the chokers also make the bonded highly vulnerable to magical suggestion- I would like you to take them to me or the magician’s squad so that we can make sure they do not attack you.” The blue haired magician looked a little distasteful as she said that. Aladdin frowned.

“In respect to the matter of the chokers being removed, we’ve found that it came off the neck of the dead prisoner easily, but we were unable to take it off the two bonded who killed their guardians. It has been hypothesized that only if the pulse of the person wearing the choker stops will the chokers come off.” Yamuraiha paused warningly, her usual gentle expression suddenly stern and unforgiving. “We have not tested this yet, and we do not intend to test it either- it’s cruel and inhumane.”

Ja’far continued for her. “Since many people have expressed that they do not want to maintain their responsibilities of guardianship, they must find either a magician or a magoi manipulator more powerful than themselves and therefore able to overpower the magoi already in the choker who is willing to take up responsibility for the bonded if they wish to transfer guardianship. Please be warned that adding too much magoi to the choker will likely cause cases of irrational aggression. We encourage you to be on guard at midnight, and not to fall asleep before your charges do. That is all for now.”

As the members of the meeting scattered, Aladdin hurried over to Yamuraiha, who looked like she was expecting this.

“Yamu-san, using magical suggestions on them isn’t right-!” he started, but she cut him off with a sigh.

“I know, but there’s no other way we can be assured of our safety with so many prisoners. Sinbad and Ja’far thought for a long time on this, and they couldn’t find another solution I’m afraid.” She brightened a little bit. “But don’t worry, it’s only one to keep them from attacking people. We won’t give them any other suggestions.”

“Still…” The magi trailed off and lowered his eyes. “…Never mind, Yamu-san.”

Some time ago, with Morgiana, Kouha, and Judal…

“Where are we going?” Kouha yawned, rubbing at his eyes. Next to him, Judal’s back made a series of cracking noises as the dark magi stretched in an attempt to wake himself up a bit.

“We are going to get Koumei-san and then we will meet up with Masrur and the Fanalis Corps from Reim in Alibaba-san’s room.” Morgiana informed them, not bothering to embellish further. They turned a corner and she stopped in her tracks, staring straight ahead for a second.

“What? Hey, muscle girl, what’s the matter?”

There was silence. The tension in the air was so thick it could be cut with a knife.

Then Morgiana turned to look at Judal with a look of irritation on her usually blank face.

“Aladdin went the wrong way again.”


	7. Chapter 7

“He went the wrong way?” Kouha questioned incredulously. “How? I mean, I know the palace can be a little confusing, but we’ve only made two turns since we left the room!”

Judal snickered. Morgiana didn’t appear to have an answer, and instead started walking again, leaving them to hastily follow after her.

They made their way towards Ja’far and Koumei’s room, Morgiana keeping a watchful eye on the two young men behind her, occasionally looking more warily at Judal. From what she could see though, they were relatively harmless right now – in contrast to what they looked like on the battlefield.

Although the magi probably didn’t remember it, she had had the dubious fortune of being on the receiving end of one of Judal’s wide-ranging ice attacks whilst in a fairly minor skirmish in Sindrian territory. That close distance had been the only reason for her survival; the shard of ice had pierced a major artery, and the rest of the Fanalis Corps had only just gotten her to Aladdin in time for an emergency healing.

In contrast to the fearsome image she had built from her confrontations and other less than friendly encounters with him, Judal was not doing anything nefarious… nor was he trying to escape… in fact, he wasn’t even being annoying. That honor went to Kouha, who had the unsuspecting magi’s long braid in his hand and was weaving the ends of his hair into countless little plaits. And Judal was just trudging wearily along, too sleepy to notice the prince’s uncharacteristic silence. To his credit, Kouha was being quite careful not to pull on the braid, but… they made a comical picture.

Morgiana could feel the corners of her lips tugging upwards in spite of herself, and turned away from the two quickly to keep them from seeing it. She couldn’t quite keep herself from glancing back to look at the progress Kouha had made on Judal’s braid every so often though.

By the time they reached the room that Ja’far and Koumei shared, a little over half of Judal’s hair had been plaited and he still hadn’t noticed. Morgiana discreetly patted her face to make sure she wasn’t smiling before carefully sliding the unreasonably fragile door open – she had already ripped through at least five of the things already, it wouldn’t be good if she damaged another. Why did they make the things out of paper anyways?

“Koumei-san? Are you there?” Stepping into the room, she looked around and found she couldn’t see him. She could most definitely smell where he was though; somewhere in the middle of the cocoon of blankets and pillows piled on the bed. “Koumei-san, wake up…”

Tentatively, she prodded at the pile in an attempt to rouse the unresponsive man underneath, carefully restraining her strength. “We need to go…”

“I’ll wake him u-!” Judal cried gleefully, with one foot poised to kick Koumei straight off the bed. Morgiana backed away as Kouha, who came sprinting past both of them, cut him off.

“No, I’ll do it!” he laughed, eyes bright with excitement. “MEEEIIIII!!!!”

He threw himself high into the air and flopped down onto the pile of blankets with an audible thump and a muffled ‘oomph’ of exhaled air from within the nest. Morgiana stared.

There was a muted groan from Koumei. “Noooo…. Lemme sleep, Kouha…”

Judal grinned sharply, drawing his foot back. “Looks like he isn’t gonna wake up. You won’t mind me doing this then!”

Kouha let out an outraged shriek, as he and Koumei were both propelled off the bed from the force of the magi’s kick. Morgiana judiciously stepped out of the way just in time to keep them from crashing into her, still in a state of disbelief from their violent methods of waking Koumei up.

A twitching hand was extended from underneath the heap of blankets and pillows, with Kouha still perched on top and engaged in a indignant rant at Judal, who was only making him angrier by laughing at him. 

The hand slapped at the ground as if in surrender, and after a moment more of this Morgiana took pity on him. Lifting an owl-eyed Kouha by the waist with one hand and tucking him under her arm, she used the other to forcefully yank Koumei into the open.

“Thank you – Priest, what happened to your hair?!” choked Koumei, looking half horrified and half like he wanted to laugh. Kouha cursed under his breath; the game was up. Judal blinked and felt the length of his braid until he reached the end – which had been almost completely braided.

“What did you do!?” screeched Judal furiously, leaping at Kouha with his hands extended like he wanted to claw his face. Morgiana sighed and casually lifted him out of Judal’s reach, and told them matter-of-factly, “We really should go. We are already past the agreed meeting time.”

As they continued towards the room that Morgiana shared with Hakuryuu, Hakuei and Alibaba, she could hear Judal whimpering feebly as he realized just how ridiculous his hair looked once it was out of the plaits.

“Pfft…! It looks like you attached a feather duster to your braid!” Kouha chortled, holding his sides and desperately trying to breathe. 

“This is your fault! Stop laughing!” The magi wailed as he held it in front of his face, futilely trying to smooth it out but only making it puff out even more. It had the added side effect of making Kouha nearly collapse with laughter, using the wall as support as he doubled over.

Absentmindedly, the third prince smacked Koumei upside the head as he started to topple sleepily to the side again, and continued laughing. As for Morgiana, she kept on walking, suddenly feeling inexplicably mature next to the three behind her; all of whom were at least three years older than her in terms of age. 

They turned the corner, and Morgiana stopped in front of the nearest door, turning to wave them over.

“We’re here.”


	8. Chapter 8

“We’re here.”

Morgiana reached to open the door, disregarding the strange noises coming from the other end. Seeing this, Judal and Kouha quieted down, with the latter shaking Koumei back into wakefulness.

“ROH-ROH!”

Her fingers were about to touch the door when she stopped and suddenly leapt backwards, pushing Koumei straight into Kouha, who nonchalantly shoved him back upright and peeked around to look at what was going on. 

Morgiana had just barely managed to avoid Roh-roh, as the big Fanalis flew straight through the door as though it wasn’t there (although to be fair, it was made of rice paper) and landed with a resounding crack on the opposite wall.

“Ah, shit, why do they make these things out of paper anyways?” groused Myron irritably, poking at the torn remains of the door.

“You should be more worried about the wall, Myron-san. It’s not as easy to replace as the door is,” Morgiana informed her flatly. Roh-roh had cratered the concrete wall when he landed, and there was a Fanalis-shaped imprint there telling everyone who passed by exactly what had happened.

“Oh, no…” Mu groaned from inside the room. “Another door? Titus-sama is going to have my head for this… that makes the forty-eighth door altogether…”

“…” Morgiana couldn’t believe she had been worried about breaking five of the things. It was nothing in comparison to the disappointed, kicked-puppy look and sad lecture (re: guilt trip) that Mu would receive from Titus once he gave the blond magi the news of all the doors they needed to replace.

“I’ve brought Koumei, Kouha and Judal. I apologize for being late,” she told the man after leading the three bonded inside the room.

“No, it’s not a problem. Masrur hasn’t arrived yet either, so it doesn’t really matter. I don’t know what’s taking him so long though,” Mu replied, looking a little worried as he poked his head out of the door to give the area a cursory survey.

“Ah…so what would you like us to do?” Morgiana asked, giving only a cursory glance at her charges; she could hear them well enough already. On the other side of the room, Hakuryuu and Hakuei were staring at Judal’s ruined braid, both of them diplomatically trying to keep their faces straight and mostly failing.

“I told you, it’s not funny!”

Meanwhile, Kouha was fussing over Koumei’s bruised wrists.

“You’ve bruised me more than he did,” Koumei responded dryly to Kouha’s agitated complaints. “I think you broke my ribs.”

“Liar,” Kouha scowled, expression dark. “I was really worried about you, you know.”

“Good boy,” Koumei muttered, patting his brother’s head a few times.

“Hmph…” Kouha sulked childishly for a moment more, pretending he hadn’t been appeased by just a pat on the head, but gave in to his curiosity within moments. “So… does that guy really have seven horns and does he really breathe fire when he’s angry?”  
“Not that I can see,” Koumei looked thoughtful for a second, staring at the ceiling as he rolled it silently over in his mind for a few moments. “I’m pretty sure that’s just a rumor.”

Morgiana suppressed another smile, and turned back to Mu as he sat back down behind a sturdy wooden desk piled with stacks and stacks of paperwork.

“We were supposed to be doing some of the extra paperwork,” The man smiled sheepishly, one hand going to the back of his head. “But…it didn’t turn out too well.”

By now, Morgiana had worked with the Fanalis Corps enough to know exactly what had happened without him needing to tell her. The only ones working would be Myron and Mu, since the others couldn’t write (and didn’t want to do paperwork), and then Myron would get angry that Roh-roh was doing fun things without her and try to force him to do paperwork. They would end up fighting, and Mu would be the only one doing any work at all… as usual. She sighed.

“I can… stamp things?” she offered unsurely. “I can’t write…”

“Sure, that would be a great help!” beamed the other redhead, pushing a large stack of papers at her. “You can stamp all of these, I’ve already looked through all of them so they’re okay.”

“Alright.” She took the stack and sat herself down close to where Hakuryuu was helplessly trying to smooth out Judal’s hair (it wasn’t working) while Hakuei did her best to placate the furious, humiliated magi. That wasn’t working either, mainly because she couldn’t quite suppress her smile whenever she looked at his braid and Hakuryuu was nearly in tears from how hard he was laughing.

A quarter of the way through the pile Morgiana had been given, she looked up as Masrur delicately lifted the remains of the door out of his way and entered, Kouen and Kougyoku following a step behind him.

“Sorry. Kougyoku was in the bath.” Masrur offered as an excuse for his lateness, one hand raised in supplication. Said princess squeaked and went bright red with embarrassment, long sleeves going to cover the lower half of her face. Mu looked as though he didn’t quite know what to say in reply to that, his mouth opening then closing and then opening again before he finally spoke.

“Erm… well… could you help me out with this?” He waved at the paperwork with the hand that wasn’t holding the quill.

While Masrur nodded gravely and took a pile of papers to finish, Kouen moved towards his brothers and Kougyoku gravitated in the direction of Hakuei and Judal.

“En-nii!” Kouha beamed brightly, looking relieved he was there. “Are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m fine. Who are you with, Kouha?” he questioned in reply. Koumei blinked in realization, having forgotten to ask.

“Aladdin, the magi,” Kouha smiled a little weakly. “Me and Judal were the last ones there, and he took us both.”

“Oh, so you know where everyone went,” Koumei said. “That might come in useful sometime. Kouen… you look like you didn’t sleep well.”

The first prince looked resigned as he pointed at Kougyoku, who was on her way to where the others were sitting. “Sinbad took off all his clothes sometime during the night. She woke up and screamed us all awake.”

Kougyoku stalled, stopping in her tracks a few steps away from the others, with her mouth falling open in shock.

“Yo, old hag.” Judal waved a greeting, his eyebrows raised curiously at her expression, which was slowly transitioning from shocked to horrified, her eyes fixed somewhere in the space between Hakuryuu and Judal.

“W-w-what happened to your hair, Judal-chan?!” She shrieked once she recovered from her surprise, her expression utterly appalled. Hakuryuu choked and burst into another fit of laughter, his sister quite suddenly putting her hands over her face, her shoulders shaking quietly.

Judal’s face went crimson with sheer fury.

“Stop it! It isn’t funny!”


	9. Chapter 9

As he left the council meeting room, Aladdin tried not to sigh and failed. Magical suggestion was something he had encountered only a few times, with the most memorable case being that of Aum Madara, the woman who had convinced tens of children that she was their mother, and had tried to persuade him into thinking she was his dead mother.

Olba and the other former children under her control were still touchy whenever she was mentioned, and despite the fact that they knew she had been manipulating them by now, they could barely look at Hakuryuu without having to storm off to the training grounds afterwards. Aladdin assumed that they were taking out their murderous intentions on the targets. 

While they had still been at war with Kou, whenever any of them encountered Hakuryuu they had always attacked with a little more enthusiasm than was healthy, forcing Alibaba to save them from their own recklessness a number of times that he could have gone without.

If there was something he could truly say he actually hated, it would probably be magical suggestion- taking away the free will of others; it was all too similar to what the Orthodox had done to the other races in Alma Torran.

Deep in thought, he didn’t notice Ja’far until he collided with the shorter man, sending scrolls flying everywhere as the advisor dropped them to catch himself on the wall.

“A-ah, sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going,” Aladdin apologized, scrambling to pick the scrolls up before they rolled away.

“It’s fine,” Ja’far smiled slightly in return, also bending to collect the rolls of paper. “It isn’t like you to be lost in thought though… is there something wrong? Wait, no, that wasn’t a good question. You’re against the idea of magical suggestion, aren’t you?”

“…Yes,” the magi stared at the ground. “I know there isn’t another way.”

Ja’far looked at the dejected youth regretfully for a few seconds before he patted him on the back in a weak attempt at reassurance.

“Come, don’t mope over things you can’t change. Will you accompany me to pick up your bonded?” he offered, hoping to at least distract Aladdin a little. It was uncomfortable for him to see Aladdin this way, the normally perpetually cheerful magi looking despondent and miserable.

“Of course, I was on my way there anyways,” Aladdin smiled a little weakly, gathering up the last of the scrolls and handing them back to Ja’far with a crinkling noise as the dry parchment crumpled a little from the weight. “How are we doing in terms of supplies?”

“Ah, we’re doing very well to tell the truth,” Ja’far brightened up at the question, rummaging through the scrolls piled in his arms as they kept on walking. “I had honestly expected that they would have a lot less supplies stored up, but it looks like we won’t be running out of food anytime soon. There are shipments of cloth coming in for the hammocks soo– Aladdin, that’s the wrong way!”

Aladdin blinked and backtracked, returning to Ja’far’s side.

“But… this is the way I came,” he said, looking confused.

“That’s the long way; it’s almost twice the length of the way we’re taking now.” Ja’far couldn’t quite suppress his amusement, covering his mouth with his sleeve as a smile threatened to break out. “No wonder you were late if you took that way.”

“I can’t tell the difference, all the corridors look the same in here,” Aladdin groaned, looking a little embarrassed. “See? I saw that dragon ornament in the last corridor too!”

“Well…” It was true; they all looked the same even to Ja’far’s keen eye. “I could have a map made for you…”

“Really? Thanks, Ja’far-onii-san!” Aladdin grinned from ear to ear, about to continue, but stopping in shock when they saw a crater in the wall across from the room where they were supposed to meet up.

“What happened?” The white haired advisor asked faintly, his expression twisted with worry. They both rushed to look inside the room, finding Myron and Roh-roh quarreling with even more vigor than usual. Mu wasn’t even trying to stop them at this point, frantically trying to finish up the paperwork.

“Ah… Do you think it’s the collars?” Aladdin asked the advisor, his tone sounding wholly unimpressed. Ja’far stared a moment more at the quarrelling pair, expression deadpan.

“It could be. But then again, they’re like that normally too.”

Mu looked up from the scroll he was signing and jumped to his feet, almost pathetically grateful for the distraction from the dreaded paperwork. His hands were covered in inkblots; much more than usual. Aladdin guessed he was getting a little aggravated from either the amount of work he was doing, or all the noise that Myron and Roh-roh were making.

“You’re here!” Mu smiled down at them, scrubbing at an ink stain on his face, apparently unaware he was leaving an even larger streak with it.

“Uh…Mu-san…your hand…” Ja’far attempted to point out. The half-Fanalis looked at his inky hand and quickly put it down by his side.

Aladdin made his way over to the group gathered around Judal, most of whom were laughing uncontrollably.

“Is there something funny?” he asked curiously, glancing around the cluster of people. Hakuryuu opened his mouth, only to have Judal slap his hand over the scarred prince’s face before he could get a word out.

“Nothing!” The magi said hastily, surreptitiously making sure his braid was hidden from Aladdin’s eyes.

“Eh? But I was sure…”

“Oh my, Judal. Whatever happened to your braid?” Ja’far asked with mock sympathy as he passed by, hiding his smirk of amusement from Aladdin with the sleeve of his wide robe. Busted. Judal whipped around to glare daggers at him as he walked in Koumei’s direction, a furious blush already reddening the dark magi’s cheeks.

“Your braid?” Aladdin questioned, trying to get a look only to be thwarted by Judal pulling his braid behind his back, shielding it with his own body.

Kouha approached them with a wide grin, bending down to chortle, “What, are you actually trying to hide it? No way am I letting you do that!” as he yanked the braid out of Judal’s hands for Aladdin to see.

“…Oh. Oh. Well…I’m guessing you braided his hair?” Aladdin queried, his face the picture of resignation. Kouha beamed unrepentantly. Judal’s face sank into his hands; apparently this was the final blow. “Come on, it isn’t that bad. Let’s go back to the room, I can fix it.”

The other magi perked up hopefully, getting to his feet only for Hakuryuu to choke out another laugh when the end of the braid swayed in front of his face. Aladdin sighed as Judal snatched up his braid protectively, taking special care to keep it far away from Kouha as possible.

They waved their goodbyes and moved to the doorway, only for Aladdin to stop mid-step. 

“Ah… Which way was our room again?”


	10. Chapter 10

In the end, a snickering Kouha was the one who directed them back to their shared room – for the payment of braiding Aladdin’s hair. Judal watched the many plaits forming with a kind of morbid fascination, while Aladdin inspected the disaster that the third imperial prince of Kou had made out of the end of Judal’s braid.

“So… you can fix it right?” Judal grimaced a little as he thought back to the other times Kouha had braided his hair, most prominent being the time that the prince had caught him sleeping and managed to plait almost all of it. He had stayed locked up in his room for a full week, waiting for his hair to stop looking like the wrong end of a broom, and now Aladdin was voluntarily letting Kouha do it? What was he, crazy?

“Yes, I should have what you need in my bag.” Aladdin looked at the other magi’s doubtful expression and gave him a rueful smile. “You have such little faith in me, should I be hurt? Don’t worry, I really can fix it!”

“You shouldn’t,” Kouha complained a little grouchily, finishing the braid he was on and moving on to start a new one. “It looks better this way.”

“You’re the only one who thinks so,” Judal denied flatly, his expression saying exactly what he thought about Kouha’s so-called ‘better’. The third prince stuck his tongue out childishly.

“Ah- we’re here!” Aladdin slipped easily from Kouha’s grasp and trotted over to his bag of things, rummaging for a while before pulling out a little bottle of amber-green liquid. “This is it!”

“Ahem!” He cleared his throat in preparation and then unabashedly posed, planting his legs widely apart, putting a hand on his hip, the other hand with the bottle raised high above his head. The plaits in his hair swayed and bounced mesmerizingly. 

“Titus-kun’s Guaranteed Solution for Frizzy Hair!” 

Kouha and Judal just stared at him with vacant expressions, not quite believing he had actually just done that without even the slightest hint of being embarrassed. They could practically hear the capitalizations he was putting on the words.

“…”

A cold wind blew by. 

The three of them stayed frozen in the positions they were in. Aladdin pinked, his blush growing increasingly darker as they continued to stare at him incredulously. The silence grew, until Judal finally snapped out of his half-horrified, half-incredulous daze, slowly starting to shake his head. 

“…N-no thanks.” Kouha snorted in laughter, while Aladdin looked aghast at his dismissal, rushing forward to tug pleadingly at his arm.

“No, it really does work! Come on, I even did the same pose Titus-kun did! You just have to try it once, it doesn’t hurt!” he wailed comically, whipping Judal’s head back and forth with the force he was using to yank at his arm. 

“No way! It sounds horrible!” The other magi growled, trying to pull free from Aladdin’s iron grip and failing. In turn, Aladdin tried to drag him over to the washroom, straining and making a valiant effort but neither of them really got anywhere. At this point, Kouha was laughing so hard he could barely breathe, tears coming to his eyes from how hard he was laughing.

“C-come ooon!” Aladdin wheezed, bare feet scrabbling for purchase on the slippery floor. “Just this once!”

“J-ju-just do it, haha!” Kouha gasped finally, lending his strength to the fight by picking Judal up, slinging him over his shoulder and marching into the bathroom, where he proceeded to toss the screaming magi straight into the hot spring, clothes and all.

“Ah… Kouha-kun, you didn’t really need to…but this works just as well.”

Judal surfaced with a furious splutter, shaking his head like a wet dog and sending water flying everywhere as the magic holding his braid together dispersed and getting both Kouha and Aladdin wet as well.

“Getting it wet doesn’t help any!” he told them, trying to climb out only to be pushed back in by a dripping wet, laughing Kouha.

“You might as well try it, you’re wet already!”

“And again, whose fault is that?!”  
Aladdin blinked upon seeing Kouha clamber into the tub as well, but soon followed his example as soon as he took off his flute. It wasn’t like he could get any wetter.

“Wash your hair first,” he advised, “And then I can put on the – ”

He took a deep breath in preparation, only for Kouha to slap a hand over his mouth before he had even started. Aladdin drooped a little bit, disappointed.

“We know. It’s okay, you don’t have to say it twice.” The prince looked somewhat pitying.

They proceeded to work together on washing Judal’s (and somewhere in the process, each other’s) hair. Aladdin was apparently an expert, while Kouha took great joy in trying to braid any strands he could get his hands on, whether it was Judal’s hair, Aladdin’s hair, or a combination of both. After an incident where the dark magi had tried turning around only for them to find that their hair had been braided together, Kouha was banned from going anywhere near Judal’s hair and instead did Aladdin’s with his soap-sticky hands.

Before they all got out of the tub, Aladdin pulled out all the little hairbands and combed out the plaits, and gave his hair a quick rinse. Judal made a noise of disbelieving envy when his hair didn’t even show the slightest trace of a curl or wave.

“That’s not fair.” Kouha hid a snicker.

“It’s because my hair isn’t coarse or curly like Titus-kun’s or yours,” Aladdin lectured solemnly. “So it’s very straight. But you two have naturally wavy hair. You’re lucky Kou is a pretty dry place; Reim is really moist, so Titus’ hair always frizzes in the mornings.”

He grabbed the bottle of amber-green liquid and opened his mouth, only for Kouha to slap a hand over it again, interrupting him before he started once more. Aladdin yanked the hand from his mouth and said dryly, “It’s only olive oil.”

“…”

“Well, why didn’t you say so in the first place?”


	11. Chapter 11

Morgiana stamped the final paper with a satisfying ‘thud’, and pushed it aside with a little sigh of gratification, a sense of fulfillment bubbling up inside of her as she looked at the fruits of her hard work. That lasted until she spied the tens of little dents that her enthusiastic stamping had left on the wooden floor. Her expression fell like a stone.

She surreptitiously nudged at the carpet with her foot, mostly covering the indentations in the wood. Hopefully, no one would notice; or if they did they would brush it off as a trick of the light. It was only cosmetic anyways, it wasn’t like someone could trip over them.

On the other side of the room, Myron’s foot caught on the carpet as she was about to make a dive for Roh-roh, and she tripped and fell face first into the ground. A second later, she was up again, splintering the floor with the force she used to kick off. 

“…”

Once again, Morgiana didn’t know why she had been worried at all.

Stacking the completed paperwork in a neat pile, she carried it over to Mu, who thanked her gratefully, directing her to put it with the rest of the paperwork he had already finished. When she returned to ask if he needed any more help, he shook his head and said, “Masrur and I have split the rest between us, and I already gave all the stamping work to you, so we’re fine. Go ahead and take some time off.”

Morgiana nodded silently in acknowledgement, but didn’t bow. (She didn’t bow for anyone anymore, not even Alibaba.)

With no work to do, she quietly moved over towards where Hakuryuu and Hakuei were sitting, perched on the edge of the bed. Hakuryuu was spluttering and waving his hands about wildly for some reason, and she focused her hearing on whatever Hakuei was saying, a little curious.

“…and you looked at that poor ambassador and stared at him for almost a minute without,” Hakuei giggled. “Then right after that you pointed at him and said, “Okaa-chan!”. You almost caused a diplomatic incident, you know! And there was that time with Koumei too, you called him ‘Onee-chan’!”

“No, no, please no,” Hakuryuu whimpered frantically, trying to cover her mouth only to be fended off easily by his smiling sister. “Stop it, stop it, everyone can hear you!”

“Hakuryuu-san must have been a very cute child,” Morgiana interjected from over Hakuryuu’s shoulder, having gotten closer and closer as the beautiful Kou princess continued her story about Hakuryuu’s childhood. The scarred prince froze up like a statue, until he creakily turned his head with an expression of dawning horror to see Morgiana smiling slightly as she looked down at him.

“Y-you-” He choked on his own words, before trying again. “Y-y-you were listening to that?!”

“Uh-huh,” she nodded calmly, making an affirmative noise. Hakuryuu looked like he couldn’t decide whether to go pale or light up with a fiery blush, and he ended up flopping backwards on the bed and grabbing a pillow to cover his blotchy face. 

Vaguely, he heard Hakuei starting on another story with what sounded suspiciously like undertones of glee in her voice. Hakuryuu moaned in utter humiliation and covered his ears as well, trying to block out the world and hopefully save himself from further embarrassment.

o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o

Alibaba walked into the somewhat crowded room, ignoring the commonplace sight of the brawling Fanalis Corps and instead surveying the other residents of the room.

Morgiana looked like she was deeply immersed in a conversation with Hakuei, both of them smiling as the older girl animatedly described something with accompanying hand gestures. Sprawled on the bed was Hakuryuu, who for all intents and purposes looked like he was attempting to suffocate himself with a pillow. 

Alibaba paused at that last bit, a little alarmed, but seeing as Morgiana was near him, he’d probably be fine no matter what happened. A little further off was Kouen, staring out of the window, or probably more likely spaced out.

And finally, standing uncertainly between the two groups was Kougyoku, looking too skittish to approach either group and wringing her hands nervously. Alibaba took a faltering step forwards, stopped, and continued towards the young woman more steadily.

“Um…Hello,” he greeted when she didn’t appear to notice his approach. She jumped and spun to face him in alarm.

“E-eh? Oh, Alibaba-chan!” Her anxious expression transforming into a beaming smile, she took hold of Alibaba’s hands in welcome. 

“How have you been? Is Sinbad treating you well?” Alibaba asked, a little worried. She didn’t appear to be very stressed or hurt in any way, so it was most likely fine, but it never hurt to check.

Kougyoku sighed.

“I woke up to see him without his clothes again…only this time it was worse because I woke Kouen-nii-sama up.” Her face was reddening at the very memory.

“W-wait, again? I thought he might’ve learned from the last time he did that…”

“Well…at least I wasn’t sleeping in the same bed as he was!” She tried to be positive. 

They both paused and stared at each other, not quite believing they were having this sort of ridiculous conversation, and then let out undignified snorts of laughter.

“Ah…well…how about you, Alibaba-chan?” Kougyoku asked, her expression curious as she tugged at his arm, pulling him to sit next to her on the carpeted floor and drawing her knees comfortably up to her chest. Alibaba easily slid down the wall to sit cross-legged next to her.

“Mmm…well actually, I teach swordsmanship to the fresh recruits joining the alliance,” his face stretched in a broad grin. “When I was younger, I remember my teacher nearly killing me with all the training we did, but it’s actually surprisingly fun when you aren’t on the receiving end of all that work.”

“I didn’t know you were a person that liked hurting people, Alibaba-chan,” The crimson-haired princess pursed her lips and looked away. The former prince of Balbadd yelped in alarm, waving his hands frantically in denial until finally Kougyoku gave in to her laughter. “I was only joking, I know, I know.”

“Aaah, you scared me there,” Alibaba sighed in relief, then looked up with a content smile on his face. “But honestly, seeing my students improve gives me this really proud feeling in my chest. It’s like…”

He searched for appropriate words to express what he felt, only for Kougyoku to shake her head and smile as she tried to complete his thought, “Like when you…”

She paused. “Ah. I can’t describe it either.”

0.0.0.0.0.0.0

Kouha looked on in amusement as Judal purred like a particularly large cat, nudging his head against Aladdin’s hands and leaning blissfully into his touch as the younger magi meticulously combed his hair out, taking care not to pull at his scalp.

He himself was working on plaiting Aladdin’s hair back into it’s customary narrow braid, although he found himself getting a little sidetracked sometimes and twining it into more complex arrangements.

The ‘Guaranteed Solution’ which had turned out to be just olive oil appeared to have actually worked, contrary to their earlier expectations of it. The frizz in Judal’s hair had abated to little more than a slight wave, which he didn’t appear to care all that much about (although that might have been Aladdin’s magic hands talking).

As Aladdin started working on actually weave Judal’s hair back into a more uniform looking braid, his lively expression dimmed and he settled into a comfortable pattern, using the familiar, repetitive motions of his hands to keep himself calm.

“In the meeting, we got news as to what the chokers do,” he started seriously, his expression unsmiling. Kouha’s hands paused momentarily in the midst of a tiny braid before he started again, keeping silent as he waited for the magi to continue. Judal’s previously relaxed shoulders tensed once more, his slouched back straightening and stiffening.

“They drain your magoi; that’s the reason you can’t use your vessels or spells, or even magoi manipulation,” Aladdin explained solemnly, half-wincing when Kouha’s fingers, which were entwined in his hair, jerked slightly and snapped his entire head back. The redhead let out a little noise of contrition but didn’t apologize, obviously waiting for Aladdin to continue. “The magoi it drains from you is used to increase aggression of the people around you; we think it’s because they were hoping to cause infighting amongst us.”

Kouha blinked in realization; Judal remained tense and silent.

“But… That didn’t work, did it?” the prince questioned unsurely, eyebrows raised. Aladdin sighed deeply and sadly. “No way, it did?”

“It didn’t cause too much trouble with the nobles and people in important stations, but the soldiers are regularly getting into fights in the mess hall, and the Fanalis are causing untold amounts of property damage,” he finally confided, looking both amused and resigned. “They aren’t fighting, but just little bursts of uncontrolled emotion can cause a lot of damage when you’re as strong as they are. They can’t just punch a wall and feel better; they’d bring the palace down around our ears. The current damage count is fifty-seven doors, a multitude of craters in the floors and seven demolished walls.”

“Eeh?! No way, we just got those doors refurbished!” 

“I have complete confidence,” Aladdin smiled brightly, tying off the end of Judal’s braid, “That all those doors will need to be replaced by the end of the week.”

Kouha groaned dramatically in mock despair, almost finished with Aladdin’s braid as well, and working faster now that he saw Aladdin was done already.

“Back to more pressing topics,” the magi stated. “The bad thing about those chokers for you is that they make you highly vulnerable to magical suggestion. It’s been agreed upon that the only way they can trust you all to run free is after they’ve given you a magical suggestion that keeps you from harming us.”

The tie on Aladdin’s braid snapped into place with a loud cracking noise that expressed Kouha’s feelings on the matter very accurately.

Aladdin forged onwards, determined to get through this last spurt.

“I’m supposed to bring you to the medical room so they can do that as soon as possible, so… that’s tomorrow.” 

There was dead silence in the little room. 

Aladdin cringed.

0.0.0.0.0.0.0

That night, Alibaba said his goodbyes to Kougyoku as she left with Sinbad, and then waved to Mu and the Fanalis Corps as they filed out of the considerably more damaged room.  
They were sleeping on the same bed again tonight, the shipment of cloth having come in late. Hakuei’s eyes were already closed, and Morgiana had Hakuryuu aquedately trapped, although at this point he wasn’t actually struggling much anymore. Quietly, Alibaba slid under the covers and fell asleep quickly enough.

Quickly enough that he didn’t hear Hakuryuu whisper to the sleeping Fanalis, “If I was a cute child, then Morgiana-dono must have been the most beautiful, perfect child in her generation.”

In the darkness of the room, Hakuryuu didn’t see her crimson flush. He did feel it when she hugged him just that little bit tighter though.


	12. Chapter 12

“So,” Sinbad started brightly as he led Kougyoku and Kouen down the dimly lit corridors and back into the shared room. “What has you so happy, hm?”

The question was directed at a blissfully smiling and humming Kougyoku, who was practically dancing down the hallway, a faint rosy blush decorating her cheeks, her long dress flaring outwards as she gave a little twirl before catching herself. Kouen was starting to look a little fidgety, a muscle in his jaw visibly twitching a little every time his sister hit a particularly high note in her happy tune.

It’s the blond brat from Balbadd.

“Ah, I just finished talking to Alibaba-chan!” she beamed cheerfully, turning that horrifically bright smile onto the two men. 

“And what was it that you were talking about?” Sinbad enquired, his expression and tone just as jaunty as hers. Kouen wanted to cringe.

“Ah – you, actually!” The king blinked in surprise and mutely pointed a finger at himself in question. “Alibaba had a copy of the Adventures of Sinbad with him, so we read it and tried to figure out which parts were true and which parts weren’t.”

Kougyoku laughed a little to herself, obviously remembering something funny. She turned her suddenly mischievous gaze onto Sinbad. “So…does Ja’far-san actually breathe fire when he’s angry?”

Sinbad blinked in utter confusion. 

“What? No, he’s never done that, why would you think-” 

Oh. It was the storybook he published. 

He didn’t know it had become popular or even mildly well known; in fact, Ja’far had condemned it as ‘literary trash’. Although the hasty caricatures of him with seven fierce horns and breathing fire plastered over the book probably hadn’t improved his opinion of it at all.

Sinbad hid his smile as he remembered his furious advisor sprinting around the palace searching for the books, and upon finding one personally ripping it to little more than shredded bits of parchment. His face had been so pale with rage that his freckles looked even darker than usual.

Ah…that was a good day. 

Ja’far had been too busy hunting down the books to nag him about doing paperwork, and he’d had the full day to go out to the city and visit his citizens, see how they were doing and boost the public morale a bit. Of course, he’d regretted it later when the paperwork piled up mercilessly, but still. 

It looked like Ja’far hadn’t managed to catch all the copies though, or else the story would never have made it out of Sindria. The advisor had not at all appreciated his depiction in Sinbad’s story, the purple haired man remembered with a mental wince.

“Sin! W-w-what- what is this thing?! What sort of ridiculous fiction are you writing? I don’t grow horns, and I don’t breathe fire!”

“Oh, this? It’s just a past time… the man who published it said it was really good though.”

“You published it? How am I supposed to negotiate with other countries if they think I’ll breathe fire at them when I get angry? Take it back! Take it back right now!”

“Not possible.”

“E-eh?”

“The first print just came out.”

“…”

“Ja’far? Are you alright?”

“BARARAQ SEI!”

“E-eh?”

Sinbad absently shivered, not noticing he had stopped and Kougyoku and Kouen were both staring at him, one in concern and the other blatantly impatient.

Actually, that hadn’t really been a good day.

“No, not really,” he assured Kougyoku. “Well…not unless you count metaphorical fire.”

Just about to enter his own room, Ja’far sneezed.

“Someone must be talking about you,” Koumei said from his place on the bed. Ja’far looked up to reply and found his reply caught on the tip of his tongue, instead transforming into a blank stare. The redhead stared back him dully, his hair a bird’s nest of knots and tangles, his silken sleepwear wrinkled and with the wrong side out.

Dear Solomon. I’ve finally found someone even less capable of taking care of himself than Sinbad. It’s too bad he’s supposed to be under my care.

“Did you take a bath?” Ja’far asked, a gloomy sort of resigned despair plastered all over his face.

Koumei nodded gamely.

“Did you actually wash your hair?”

Koumei nodded.

“…Did you even try to comb your hair?”

Koumei started to nod, paused; then made a ‘sort of’ motion with his hand

Ja’far wilted. Then he pulled a comb out of his wide sleeves with a little sigh.

“Turn around please.”

The second imperial prince of Kou ended up being almost sure that Ja’far was ripping out half of his hair at the roots, despite the fact that when he was done the white-haired advisor had accomplished what Koumei’s maids hadn’t in years – taming his hair. Mostly. The freckled advisor ended by yanking his now tangle-free hair into a strict ponytail, ignoring his victim’s hiss of pain, and finally sitting down with a little sigh of satisfaction.

A flick of his wrist sent his rope darts flying across the room and dragging back what looked like a basket of ripped clothes, which Ja’far quickly started mending, his stitches neat and tiny, his hands practically flying across the seams and rents in the fabric.

“You are very good with a needle,” Koumei noted, curious.

“Thank you.” Ja’far replied absently. “It comes of all that practice when I was younger, though then it was arteries and flesh rather than fabric.”

“…”

Koumei made a mental note of that, and then tried to pretend he hadn’t just heard what Ja’far had said. It wouldn’t help him sleep at all.

0.0.0.0.0.0.0

Before she settled down to sleep, Kougyoku marched over to Sinbad and reached for the sash at his waist. Kouen looked over in alarm, getting ready to sit up. She proceeded to firmly and tightly, undeterred by the king’s gentle, somewhat alarmed chiding, tie a double knot that would hopefully at the very least keep his robe on.

Sinbad stared at her. She stared back.

“What did you think I was going to do?” she said, looking rather interested.

Sinbad opened his mouth to speak and closed it again. Kouen’s palm met his own face with a loud smack.


	13. Chapter 13

“Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

“Start now.”

The soldiers on the walls were standing on guard, eyes roving the area in front of them watchfully, searching for any kind of invading force. They were so focused on their duty they never thought to consider that one of their own could be a traitor.

Garbed in the uniform of one of the maids of the Reim nobles, an utterly average looking woman walked from soldier to soldier on the wall, handing out water skins to replace their empty ones and thanking them for their hard work in a whisper. 

She had brown hair and dull brown eyes, with features that were not particularly beautiful, nor particularly ugly. Her only special feature was how completely average she was. 

The soldiers never thought of not accepting the water she gave them, nor did they really pinpoint her as the cause of their gradual sleepiness, which lulled them into a state of complacency. The previously alert and battle-ready guards never noticed the brief shadows flashing over the wall, drugged as they were.

Her job done, the maid walked sedately back into the castle, her pace unhurried, and walked into the public baths, mussing her hair a bit and splashing water on her face. When she re-entered the maid’s quarters, another woman looked up and smiled at her. 

“Finished with your bath?”

“Yes, thank you. I’ll be going to sleep now.”

“That’s right, we have a long day of work tomorrow.”

“Good night, miss.”

“Good night.”

0.0.0.0.0.0

The bedroom was dark and quiet, with the only sounds being that of the wind outside and the soft breathing of the three occupants slumbering away. The moon outside was full, shining brightly, with pale light peeking through the gaps in the thick silk coverings on the window.

Kouen woke up.

There was something wrong, something very wrong. His instincts were screaming at him, but he couldn’t tell why. Falling back on training and prior experience, he kept his eyes closed and his breathing steady, even as his other senses strained to discover what was causing the element of wrongness in the room.

He knew his hammock was up against a wall, with the bed Sinbad was in planted firmly in the middle of the room. Kougyoku was on the other side, her breathing deep and even as she slept peacefully.  
He could hear no footsteps, and there was no telltale rustle of cloth that usually came when a person moved. Only two sets of breathing aside from his own from what he could tell, those belonging to Sinbad and Kougyoku.

What was wrong then? He inhaled a little more deeply with his next breath and immediately got his answer. 

Blood. 

He could smell the coppery, metallic stench spreading across the room, but from where he didn’t know. There was an assassin here with them, and he had killed at least one other person before entering. 

Shit. He really wished he had a sword right now. No, not a sword. Any blade would do.

Kouen quickly considered his options. In his current state, with no magoi or even a weapon, there was little chance he would be able to overpower or intercept the killer if they went for himself or Kougyoku. His only other choice was to wake Sinbad, and hope he could Djinn Equip quickly.

There was a vase on the shelf next to the hammock, a heavy glass thing patterned with an ornamental dragon. Kouen remembered its position quite clearly. From where he was, he could probably…No. He could.

In a single fluid movement, the first imperial prince flung his arm out, sending the vase crashing to the floor where it shattered loudly in a high-pitched rain of glassy shards, and threw himself off the bed. 

It was lucky he did that, as a second later a rain of throwing knives pierced through the exact areas his neck, chest and arm had been. The one that had been aimed for his chest caught his arm instead, tearing through the cloth of his sleeve and cutting almost to the bone.

“Fuck!” Kouen swore, gripping his injured arm and rolling away again.

Sinbad jerked to wakefulness in an instant, the sudden crash and the burst of murderous intent flooding the room causing him to call upon his djinn equip. Baal’s lighting crackled through the air, lighting the room in shades of blue.

The hooded assassin almost completely ignored Sinbad other than to dodge the blast of electricity that the king sent at him – for he was distinctly male, instead going for Kouen again, the already bloodied blade in the man’s hand sending a spray of crimson droplets onto the floor as he swung and missed, turning the failed attempt into a rolling dodge that ended with the assassin straddling Kouen, dagger raised high in an attempt to finish him off that way. 

Sinbad lunged, but Kougyoku got there first, surprisingly quiet until the moment she exploded into motion. 

“I won’t let you!”

The heavy mahogany shelf that had borne the vase until only moments ago was a deadly weapon in her hands as it smashed violently into the assassin’s torso with surprising strength, sending the man flying into the wall. 

Kouen caught the falling dagger with his good hand before it hit him and sat up, about to warn his sister the fight wasn’t over until Sinbad strode past both of them and knocked the dazed assassin out with a solid hit to the head.

They all stayed tensed and ready for a second longer before relaxing as Sinbad lit the lanterns, revealing there was no one else in the room with them. It didn’t last.

The door didn’t so much open as it was ripped to shreds, unable to withstand the force of Masrur running right through it, having seemingly forgotten it was even there.

“Seven high ranking nobles of the Kou Empire have been killed in their sleep – it looks like the culprit is travelling your way,” he informed them, and was about to continue before noticing the unconscious, bloodied man lying on the floor. “Oh.”

“Sound the alarm, Masrur,” Sinbad ordered immediately, his expression serious. “We have assassins in the palace.”


	14. Chapter 14

“Aladdin!” The sliding door snapped open with the force with which Ja’far used to throw it wide, sending bright light spilling into the dark room. 

Aladdin jumped to alertness to the alarmed tone in the advisor’s voice, trying to shoot to his feet, grab his staff, and get in a fighting stance all at once but instead tripping over Kouha’s hammock (unused to having it there) and sending both of them tumbling to the ground.

In fact, it was exceedingly fortunate that he did so, or the third prince might have been skewered several times over. As it was, the hammocks where Kouha and Aladdin had been were shredded to little more than ragged strips of canvas, while the two of them managed to escape the deadly weapons by a narrow berth, Aladdin’s borg making a brief appearance before it shattered.

“On the ceiling!” Judal shouted, his tone somewhat incredulous as he reflexively tossed an ineffectual pillow at the shadowy figure clinging to the roof. It did little more than rip open in another spray of feathers, but it obscured the assassin’s vision for just a second. 

That was more than enough for Ja’far. He immediately sent his rope darts flying in the direction Judal had pointed out, the crimson strings wrapping themselves tightly around the would-be murderer, or rather just murderer (On closer inspection, the blades the assassin was carrying were already soaked with blood, meaning he had already killed someone). The man fell heavily to the ground with a loud thump.

“Good eye,” Ja’far ground out, his tone somewhat grudging. Meanwhile, Kouha managed to squirm halfway out from underneath Aladdin, who really had grown – he was crushing him with just the weight of his body – only to freeze when he heard the magi let out a groan of pain when he moved.

“Hey, are you okay?” Kouha questioned, twisting his head back to look at Aladdin, who was dead weight on the lower part of his torso. Tentatively, he patted at the other boy’s shirt, only to find it wet and warm, his fingers coming away stained with crimson liquid. “Hey! Wake up!”

By this time, Ja’far and Judal had noticed their situation and came over, one hurrying and the other at a slightly more sedate pace.

“What’s the matter?” Ja’far asked, gently lifting Aladdin off Kouha and turning him over to lie prone on the ground.

“He’s bleeding from somewhere.” The prince looked concerned, crouching next to Aladdin as he let out another, louder groan and shook his head dazedly.

“M-m’okay. J-jus’ hit my head. Knives wen’ straight through my borg for sum reason.” He made a vague motion at his bleeding side with his hand. “Yoah Reg.”

He made a noise of discomfort as the wound healed rapidly, but then pushed himself to sit upright. 

“You’re alright?” The question was directed at Kouha, who nodded, still somewhat jittery from the adrenaline of nearly being killed. “Sorry about squashing you.”

“Don’t worry about squashing me, what about you?” He heaved the magi upright and supported the slightly dizzy young man over to Judal’s hammock, the only intact one left. Ja’far followed them over, Judal trailing reluctantly after him and looking comically like a lost puppy.

“That’s right, Aladdin. You should see Sphintus immediately.” The advisor fussed anxiously, reaching out like he wanted to examine the wound.

“Don’t worry Ja’far-nii!” Aladdin smiled slightly, catching his hand before he managed to touch the still tender skin. Then he turned a questioning look onto the freckled man. “Here, I’ll take the daggers to Yamu-san so she can check how they went through my borg. But why was there an assassin here?”

“It looks like their targets are the major nobles from Kou. You’re the first person who isn’t from Kou that’s actually been injured.” Ja’far told them.

“You didn’t leave Mei-nii alone did you? He can’t take care of himself!” Kouha warned, looking a little distressed at the thought but knowing better than to start tossing out accusations at this point. Ja’far shook his head.

“I left him at Alibaba’s door, he’ll tell them about the attack.”

Meanwhile, with Alibaba…

He was sprinting through the corridors, chest tight with worry. When Koumei had stumbled in through the door, waking them all up with his news of the attack, his first thoughts had been of the others.

Koumei had reassured them all that Ja’far was already on his way to Aladdin’s room, so that just left Kougyoku and Kouen. He turned the corner, stopped, and turned the other way, mentally cursing the person who had thought it a good idea to make all the corridors look identical.

This wouldn’t help him get to Kougyoku in time. To be honest, he wasn’t worried about her at all in a straight-up fight, but according to Koumei, all of the victims had been killed in their sleep. He had no idea if Kougyoku was a deep sleeper or not, but the worry was so intense it was almost crippling his rational thought.

He almost crashed into Masrur as the big Fanalis came dashing down the hallway, avoiding being sent flying into a wall by a hair.

“H-hey! Wait, where are you going?!”

“To sound the alarm,” Masrur replied bluntly, already moving away. “You carry a basic medical kit with you. You should hurry there.”

That meant someone was hurt, maybe seriously. He grew increasingly worried about Kougyoku as he frantically reviewed what he knew of first aid in his mind, sprinting towards the room.

The door wasn’t open; it wasn’t even there. He entered the room after knocking on the frame instead, casting his gaze about for Kougyoku, only to blink in a mixture of confusion and relief when he found her.

“K-Kouen-nii-sama! Please sit down!” She was trying to push him into a sitting position on the bed, while Kouen looked quite ready to get up and hunt down all the other assassins in the palace on his own, despite the fact that his entire right sleeve was soaked with deep crimson blood. 

“Ah, so the injured one is Kouen?” he spoke up, a wry smile twitching the corners of his lips upwards. He wasn’t too worried then, the first imperial prince was a persistent bastard, as he knew through multiple encounters with him on the battlefield. He wouldn’t stay down if you put a spear in his shoulder, never mind a cut on the arm. “Here, I’ll bandage it, but you should get to a magician soon before you lose too much blood.”

He didn’t really expect Kouen to sit down (and he didn’t), so he treated him standing up instead, moving with him when he started to pace impatiently. 

“I’m done, go ahead and do…what did you want to do anyways?” Kouen turned his head to give him a look that screamed ‘Are you stupid? Really?’, but Alibaba really didn’t know, so he didn’t let up with his questioning stare.

“I’m going to check on my siblings and household,” he finally gave in as he searched through the drawers of neatly folded clothes for a new shirt to replace the bloodied one he was wearing.

“The shirts are three drawers down and one to the right,” Sinbad cheerfully informed him, having finished securely binding the assassin. “And it’s not a good idea to go out on your own, we still haven’t finished checking the palace for the rest of the intruders. You don’t have a single weapon on you. Alibaba-kun, can you stay here and take care of Kougyoku-chan? I have to go help the effort.”

“Ah, sure.”

Kouen looked irritated, prowling the room like a caged tiger until the loss of blood got to him and he began to slow down.

“It’s no use weakening yourself now and then making yourself unable to help your siblings later,” Alibaba tried to reason, only to wince when Kouen turned a searing glare on him. In the end though, Kouen finally wore himself out and sat down sullenly, scowl firmly on his face.

Kougyoku sat down next to Alibaba with a tiny smile.

“My knight in shining armor,” she teased. “Were you worried about me?”

“Of course I was worried!” The blond grumbled. “I sprinted halfway across the palace to get here you know… Masrur nearly gave me a heart attack. Saying someone was injured and that I’d better get here fast…”

He really had been worried. 

So worried it was unreasonable. 

Alibaba’s thoughts spun. 

Why had he been so worried? He hadn’t even been irrationally worried like that for Aladdin! The only time he had been worried in that kind of way was two years ago, when he’d still had…a crush…on Morgiana…

Oh.


	15. Chapter 15

“Aah, even though we got a new bed…” Aladdin looked partly exasperated and more than a little amused as he stood staring at the huge, brand new bed placed in the middle of their room.

 

Judal’s little canvas hammock looked completely out of place next to the magnificent form of their new bed. It was covered in pillows and decorative blankets of all colors, creating a strange sort of messy, homely atmosphere. There was a deep blue canopy made of some sort of sheer fabric keeping the dim light of dusk from shining in, patterned with little constellations.

 

It was perfect. There was just one little hitch.

 

“Heh, it looks like our wish came true!” Kouha snickered gleefully, flopping backwards onto the bed with a soft thump and bounce. “We’re sleeping in the same bed!”

 

It was only the one bed, and the assassination attempt had destroyed both Kouha’s hammock and Aladdin’s. So… they would be sleeping in the same bed.

 

To be honest, that wasn’t really a hitch; he and Morgiana and Alibaba did it all the time. In fact, it was a benefit, since he slept a lot better and didn’t dream much when he slept next to someone else.

 

Yep, not a hitch.

 

Aladdin leapt onto the bed, nearly squashing Kouha, who rolled away just in time with a laugh, and drooped limply where he had been just a second before with a weary sigh.

 

The assassins had all been caught, with their number totaling at four. Intense interrogation (and Aladdin really, really didn’t want to know) had revealed they had a conspirator, a false maid who had been hired just two months ago.

 

They weren’t from Al-Thamen; in fact a resentful noble in Reim, whose three sons had all been killed fighting against the Kou Empire, had been the one to send them. That was the reason why none of the people from the alliance had been targeted.

 

Most of the night had been spent hunting down the assassins, who seemed more than determined to kill as many of the bonded as they could, while the interrogation had dragged on until almost noon the next day.

The rest of the day was used sniffing out the elusive maid who had drugged the guards on duty at the wall. Upon catching the woman, Aladdin realized he vaguely knew her, a widow whose village had been caught up in an attack by Al-Thamen that killed her husband and year-old child in front of her very eyes.

 

The raid where they had been killed was one of his greatest failures in the early war – spending too much time trying to save a young woman who had merged with her dark djinn, he hadn’t realized Al-Thamen had mounted a second attack on the nearby village.

 

Because he had been too reminded of Dunya, the former princess who had died from merging with her djinn, Aladdin had been blinded to the plight of others. It had cost almost fifty lives altogether, most of those being killed before Aladdin had noticed the smoke billowing from the burning village and moved to assist. He had never made that mistake again.

 

_“Why?! Why didn’t you come sooner?”_

_“M-my baby is dead!”_

_“My home…my family…they’re all gone. They’re all gone!”_

_“Wake up, wake up, please wake up! You said you wouldn’t die, please nononopleasenowakeup-”_

 

Abruptly, Aladdin gave himself a harsh pinch, snapping himself out of the trance he had been in. Although the assassins and the false maid had all been punished to an appropriate degree for killing so many people (or enabling the assassins to do so) he still felt as though he could have prevented this from happening, if only he hadn’t been distracted.

 

Yesterday had been the second night in a row he hadn’t managed to get much sleep (or no sleep at all), and most of today had been spent in a dreamy haze as he went about his lessons with Yamu-san.

 

Next to him, Kouha sneezed and shivered, rubbing at his arms in an attempt to warm himself up. In his hammock, Judal was curled up around a pillow, having stolen Kouha’s blanket for himself.

 

“Brrr, it’s starting to get cold again. We’re gonna need more blankets… Ah right, that reminds me! Aladdin, have you ever seen a Kou winter?”

 

Aladdin blinked in confusion, tilting his head to the side in bewilderment.

 

“…A…Kou winter? I-is that different from other winters?” he asked, his tone full of curiosity. He sat up a little so he could better listen to Kouha’s words.

 

“Uh-huh,” Kouha nodded enthusiastically, looking suddenly energetic; a shocking contrast to his somewhat lethargic demeanor just a moment ago. “It’s freezing cold! But you get lots and lots of snow, and that means snowball fights and snowmen –“

 

“And putting snow down the backs of other people’s shirts,” Judal interjected with a tiny smirk. Kouha frowned at him.

 

“Don’t teach things like that to Aladdin! It was bad enough with you doing to everyone last year!” The smaller redhead yanked an owl-eyed Aladdin towards him, cradling him protectively to his chest whilst glaring at Judal, who just looked even smugger.

 

“You say that like you weren’t doing it too,” the dark magi chortled in amusement, pointing an accusing finger at him. “You’re just mad because I got you with it and you didn’t. Don’t try to play innocent in front of the Chibi.”

 

Kouha sputtered, his face pinking at the admittedly correct accusation.

 

“Wow, it sounds really fun!” Aladdin smiled cheerfully, hoping to stop the impending rant before it even started. “I-I-I-”

 

He couldn’t continue, interrupted by a jaw-cracking yawn.

 

“- I…gotta sleep. Sorry, can we talk about this later?”

 

He swung his legs over the edge of the bed, trotting over to the lanterns so he could extinguish them, and then crumpling onto the bed with a little sigh of exhaustion. “M’so tired… G’night.”

 

“Night,” Kouha replied, obviously still quite awake.

 

There was only silence from Judal.

 

Less than five minutes later, Kouha grumbled, “I can’t sleep. Judal took my blanket and it’s too cold.”

 

“I’m not giving it back,” Judal retorted immediately, having wrapped himself in a cocoon of blankets from the neck down.

 

“Nooo… Gimme my blanket.”

 

“No.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“No.”

 

“ _Yes_.”

 

“I said no- Hey! What’re you doing!” Judal screeched and flailed uselessly as Kouha lifted him up, blankets and all, and dropped him on the bed. Aladdin watched this in a kind of sleepy bemusement.

 

“Well, since you aren’t giving it back, you can just sleep with me and Aladdin! Then we can share the blanket!” Kouha was back to being all smiles, easily lifting Judal and sandwiching him between Kouha and Aladdin.

 

“Chibi! Tell him he can’t do this!”

 

“Unnggghhh… s’okay, warmer this way. Jus’ sleep, Jugemu…” Aladdin mumbled drowsily, wriggling closer to the source of warmth.

 

“ _You’re no help at all!_ ”


	16. Chapter 16

Alibaba was nervously pacing up and down the corridor in front of the room that he shared with the others, wringing his hands and occasionally letting out a noise of frustration.

 

Morgiana and Hakuryuu watched in bemusement, following him with their eyes as his movements got more and more frantic for every circuit he made of the cramped corridor. Hakuei had left for the kitchens somewhere around the fifteenth to sixteenth circuit, leaving the two to just stare at Alibaba (who looked like he was having a fit) silently.

 

“Alibaba-san…” Morgiana’s normally impassive face showed a hint of worry at her king vessel’s abnormal behavior. “What’s wrong?”

 

The former prince of Balbadd finally stopped his fervent pacing and walked over to the bed, flopping facedown with a groan of dismay.

 

Tentatively, Hakuryuu patted him on the back.

 

“It can’t be _that_ bad…”

 

He fell back with a yelp of shock as Alibaba’s hands suddenly flew out and fastened onto his shoulders with an iron grip, the blond man looking up with tears streaming down his face.

 

“H-hey-”

 

“ _I’m in love with your sister!_ ”

 

Hakuryuu stopped, his mouth falling open. Morgiana’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. There was a long silence, before she stepped forwards and patted him on the back.

 

“Good luck, Alibaba-san,” she told him. “…I didn’t know you liked older women even though I’ve known you so long, how strange.”

 

“Eh? What? Older women?”

“Stay away from Hakuei-oneesan, you _bastard_!” Hakuryuu protested furiously.

 

“E-eeeh?”

 

“Alibaba-dono…” All three of them turned to see Hakuei in the doorway, carrying a cup of tea in one hand, with the other covering her mouth in shock. “Alibaba-dono…I’m honestly very flattered but…I’m afraid I’m not interested in you that way.”

 

There was dead silence. Morgiana looked sympathetic at the flat out refusal. Hakuryuu looked more than a little furious. Hakuei looked rather apologetic.

 

And Alibaba…Alibaba was just downright confused. Then he understood.

 

“No, not that sister! Your _other_ sister!” He sighed when Hakuryuu just looked even angrier. “Not that Hakuei-san isn’t a very lovely person, she’s just not the one I was talking about!”

 

Appeased, Hakuryuu settled back down with a look of mild confusion on his face.

 

“Which one are we talking about then? I have seven other sisters,” he informed Alibaba calmly, raising an eyebrow.

 

“U-uh…” Hakuei observed with a tiny smile as Alibaba fumbled and blushed his way through an unintelligible name. Hakuryuu blinked.

 

“What? Who? Say that again?”

 

Alibaba flushed a deep red all the way up to the tips of his ears, mouthing wordlessly for a second. They all leaned in with an anticipatory silence, only to cringe back a second later when he exploded loudly, “KOUGYOKU! I-I like Kougyoku, okay?!”

 

“…”

 

Morgiana was the first one to react to that.

 

“I expected it.” She declared firmly, looking as smug as Morgiana could actually be. Hakuryuu stared up at her in surprise. “Alibaba-san… has liked her for a while.”

 

“W-what? How do you know?” Alibaba demanded in alarm. “I just noticed yesterday!”

 

“Alibaba-san didn’t attack her on the battlefield, but he always went somewhere close to where her location was reported. Alibaba-san kept on staring at the flowers he used to make a wre-” The former prince of Balbadd squeaked and leapt up from his place on the bed to cover her mouth with both hands.

 

Hakuryuu vainly tried to suppress his snickers, covering his mouth with both hands and turning away. “You – hehehe – you _squeaked_.”

 

“Why you little crybaby punk–!”

 

“ _Hakuryuu_.” Hakuei chided gently, her disapproval evident in her voice. The scarred prince immediately quieted down. “Your friend is going through a difficult time right now. You must support him in his time of need!”

 

She grabbed Alibaba and spun him around to face her, with a burning intensity in her eyes. “Listen…!”

 

Hakuryuu slowly backed away, pulling Morgiana with him by an arm around her waist. She looked up at him in perplexity at his strange behavior, but allowed him to tug her over to the opposite side of the room.

 

“Remember to hold hands often…”

 

“Hakuei-nee is a romantic,” he whispered to her quietly as soon as they were as far as they could get. “She gets very…passionate about these sorts of things. If you aren’t careful, she’ll involve you as well.”

 

“Give her flowers…”

 

Morgiana stared as Hakuei listed dozens of things that Alibaba had to remember or do, ignoring the fact that the blond was cringing before her and doing his best to look for an escape route.

 

“You should kiss her goodnight and good morning…”

 

Finally, after a solid ten minutes of lecturing, she patted him on the head and concluded with, “And don’t forget, the most important thing is to say ‘I love you’. Alright?”

 

“Y-yes. I’ll just…go now. T-thanks for your advice.” Alibaba promptly fled the room, looking slightly traumatized.

 

Hakuryuu sighed again, rather resigned to it at this point.

 

“That’s the general reaction…”

 

O.O.O.O.O.O.O

 

Alibaba scoured the castle, looking for Kouen.

 

Traditionally, the approval of the bride’s father figure (or at least one of her authority figures) was needed for a courting to even begin. As Kougyoku’s father was absent, the duty would fall to either Kouen or Koumei, as they were the only two brothers she had that were older than her.

 

If one of them refused him, he would have to find the other. If _both_ refused him, which would be a disaster of epic proportions, then he would be unable to continue with the formal courting until one of them approved. Of course, he could try to press on with the informal courting, but if they married without approval it would be considered invalid.

 

Alibaba wouldn’t do that to Kougyoku, nor would he condemn any child of his to the misery and prejudice that came with being a bastard. He would be _responsible_ damnit. So he needed to find Kouen.

 

The prince was sitting by the window with a partially unrolled scroll in his hands, in the room he shared with Sinbad and Kougyoku, neither of whom were there. _Perfect_.

 

“Kouen-sama,” he greeted, bowing respectfully. Kouen narrowed his eyes, looking more than a little suspicious at this strange, formal behavior he was displaying.

 

“Alibaba.” He replied warily, keeping his tone even. That brat _definitely_ wanted something from him, to be this polite.

 

“Kouen-sama,” Alibaba started, and then gulped wordlessly. Kouen really was starting to get suspicious – and impatient to boot.

 

“Spit it out, brat,” he finally demanded as the blond mouthed silent words for another few seconds. Alibaba froze, stiffened, and then snapped forwards into a bow.

 

“Kouen-sama, I would like your permission to court Kougyoku-hime!”

 

Kouen stopped. He paused for a single incredulous second, gave Alibaba a critical once-over and then frowned. Alibaba nearly cringed, but held his ground.

 

“Say that again?”

 

“Kouen-sama, I would like your permission to court Kougyoku-hime!”

 

There was silence. Outside, the first winds of winter began to blow, the cold seeping slowly into the room.

 

“…” Kouen’s frown deepened. “Absolutely not. You have nothing to offer her, and I don’t like your character.”

 

Alibaba stared up at him in utter dismay. “But…”

 

“A no is a no. You do not have my permission to court Kougyoku.” The red head announced clearly, his eyes as cold as the cruel wind stripping the leaves from the trees outside.

 

Kouen returned to looking at the scroll in his hands and turned away from Alibaba, a clear dismissal. The former prince of Balbadd backed out of the room quietly, stopping to punch the wall once he was a safe distance away.

 

It wasn’t like he hadn’t expected it; he had no country, no property, not even a stable home.

 

He truly was unsuitable for…

 

_Stupid Alibaba!_

 

He gave himself a mental slap, outwardly shaking his head and straightening up. He couldn’t give up in the middle after having vowed to himself that he would be responsible.

 

Steeling himself, he went to find Koumei, who as expected was only just waking up, almost three hours into the afternoon, and looked an absolute mess.

 

“Koumei-sama,” he greeted, a little more cautiously now. The second prince blinked lethargically and then turned to face him with a tiny wave.

 

“Hello, Alibaba-kun. Did you need something?” He asked, futilely trying to get his hair out of his eyes.

 

“Erm…yes…” Alibaba watched in an awkward silence as Koumei struggled to get his arm into the sleeve of his robe. “That’s the wrong arm…”

 

“Oh,” Koumei turned the robe around and shrugged it on. “So, what is it?”

 

“I would like your permission to court Kougyoku,” Alibaba bowed low, and waited for a reply anxiously. Koumei paused in the midst of trying to pull his hair out of his eyes and back into a ponytail, and lowered his hands to look at Alibaba. Suddenly keen ruby eyes took in his tensed shoulders and his bruised knuckles.

 

“Aah, my brother and king already refused you, did he?” Alibaba stiffened even more, but stayed in his bow.

 

Koumei looked at him a while longer, before a small, amicable smile curved his lips upwards.

 

“If you hurt her, I won’t hurt you back. No, I won’t be the one to do it; Kouha will _eviscerate_ you. I’ll just make sure no one finds out. I’ll wipe you from the history of the world as we know it,” he spoke sweetly. Alibaba visibly paled and started sweating bullets.

 

_W-w-w-what was with his sudden mood change?_

 

Koumei kept smiling.

 

“Let’s strike a deal, Alibaba-kun. You didn’t think I’d let you have her just like that, did you?”


	17. Chapter 17

Alibaba stood straight, cold sweat trickling down the back of his neck unnoticed as he kept a close eye on the washroom door. He’d been standing like this for so long his back had gone stiff, but he didn’t dare relax.

 

It said a lot of things when Koumei managed to look eerily intimidating even with his hair an absolute mess and wearing a dark pink robe that looked so crumpled he had probably slept on it. And _smiling_. You couldn’t forget the smile, because it was just that terrifying.

 

Alibaba swore every single hair on the back of his neck had stood straight up when Koumei smiled that spine-chilling, blood-curdling smile. Every time he closed his eyes that smile flashed on the back of his eyelids. He was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to sleep soundly for quite a while.

 

He jumped when the door to the washroom slid open and Koumei emerged, looking slightly more passable than he had before.

 

“Alright, let’s start off with this,” Koumei sat down on the bed. “I want you to convince Sinbad to take off the chokers.”

 

Alibaba couldn’t say he hadn’t expected that, but to hear it delivered so flatly…

 

“I have no authority over Sinbad, Koumei-san,” he told him, tone formal as was required. It was better to be honest than to promise things he couldn’t do, especially when something so important was hanging in the balance. “I cannot affect his decisions other than to make suggestions.”

 

“I am fully aware of that,” Koumei stated coolly. Left unsaid were the words, ‘ _you have far more leeway than you think. If you go, you take the entirety of your household as well as the goodwill of the fourth magi with you.’_ Sinbad would at the very least seriously consider his words, especially if Aladdin was as soft as the rumors said he was. “I still wish for you to try. And make your opinion clear on this.”

 

“…Right.” Alibaba agreed, not quite reluctantly. To be honest, this wasn’t too great a price, and he didn’t like seeing the collars around Hakuryuu and Hakuei’s necks anyways. It was even worse for Morgiana; she would deliberately avoid the topic, and she could barely look at the chokers.

 

“I have been told that – tomorrow, I believe – we will be put under compulsions that will prevent us from attacking any of you.”

 

At this, Alibaba interrupted him. “I won’t try to sway Sinbad’s opinion on this. It was subject to heavy debate, but in the end no one could come up with a better option.”

 

Koumei’s expression tightened a fraction; this too, he had predicted. It didn’t make it any less galling.

 

“I wish for you to be there when they set the compulsions for myself and my siblings. Keep them from adding anything further than the standard.”

 

“I can do that,” the blond confirmed. “I wouldn’t let them do it anyways.”

 

“Good. And lastly…” Koumei tapped the choker with the poisonous green gem around his neck. “I want you to Djinn Equip and try to cut this off me.”

 

  
“W-what? Now?” Alibaba spluttered, caught off guard.

 

“Yes, now. Ja’far is doing my usual paperwork, so he won’t be back for quite a while. This is the best time.” Koumei told him impassively.

 

“Erm…right. I can do that,” Alibaba unsheathed his blade and held it up in front of his face, not bothering with anything other than the shorter activation phrase. “Come forth, Amon!”

 

A few corridors away, Alibaba’s household members all raised their heads with looks of alarm. Morgiana stood up, nearly flipping over the table she was sitting at with Hakuryuu, Hakuei and Olba. Hakuryuu stared up at her in astonishment, having slammed his hand onto the table to keep it from falling.

 

“M-Morgiana-dono? What’s wrong?” he asked, wide-eyed with alarm.

 

The Fanalis was silent, staring somewhere past the wall that was actually where she was looking.

 

“Alibaba-san… I have to go. Olba-san, please keep watch in my place,” she requested- although it was more a command than a question. The boy looked like he was about to protest, but she was already out of the room before he could even open his mouth.

 

“What’s going on?” Hakuryuu asked, looking as though he wanted to chase after Morgiana himself.

 

“Alibaba activated his metal vessel. Morgiana has gone to check on him and see if he’s alright,” Olba snapped curtly, making sure he talked as little as possible. He knew it was somewhat petty, but just sitting at the same table as the scarred prince was already pushing at the limits of his tolerance; talking to him was _not_ good for his temper. He knew Aum Madara had been using them – it didn’t make losing her any less painful.

 

Meanwhile, Koumei tilted his head to the side, waiting silently and keeping a wary eye on the black sword in Alibaba’s hand. He had faith that the former third prince of Balbadd wouldn’t suddenly decide to stab him, but it never hurt to be careful, especially when said prince was about to put his sword exactly where he could likely kill Koumei with the flick of a wrist.

 

“Er…should I just…” Alibaba made a half-aborted sort of slicing motion, thankfully nowhere near the choker, and Koumei involuntarily blanched white.

 

“ _No_.” He replied, his hand going up to his neck in an automatic, protective motion. “You’d take my head off that way. Do it slowly. And _please_ , be careful where you’re swinging that thing.”

 

“Okay… Then I’ll start now,” Alibaba moved at a fairly slow pace, the blade progressing sluggishly towards the gleaming choker.

 

Just two turns away now, Morgiana moved at a sprint, tracking Alibaba by his scent.

 

The blade came into contact with the metal of the choker and instantly Alibaba’s djinn equip faded away as if it had never been there. He and Koumei stared at each other with wide eyes a second before the choker _throbbed_ and instantly Alibaba’s eyes narrowed angrily, his hand fisting and swinging upwards, sending the unsuspecting Koumei stumbling back with a choking heave, the breath knocked out of him.

 

“A-ahck! Wha-!” He ducked just in time, Alibaba’s wide slash missing him by just a hair.

 

“You _bastard_!” snarled Alibaba, eyes wide and burning with a manic rage, cutting at him over and over again, not seeming to care whether he was hitting Koumei with the flat or the edge of his blade so long as he made contact.

 

Seeing that Alibaba hardly appeared to be rational at the moment, Koumei took shelter under the bed; true to form, the blond kept on hitting the bed instead, stabbing it over and over again. The Kou prince lay as flat as possible, nearly shaking with the sudden burst of adrenaline, and inched slowly to the other side of the bed.

 

Just then, Alibaba seemed to notice that he wasn’t hitting Koumei; he let out a roar of rage and tossed Amon away, throwing himself to the ground and grabbing hold of Koumei’s ankle with an iron grip. Vainly, the red head tried grabbing on to something, _anything_ , kicking at the blonde’s hands but only ended up leaving claw marks on the carpet as the physically stronger Alibaba slowly, inexorably pulled him out.

 

“A-Alibaba-san! Wha- what are you _doing_?!” There was a blur of red as Morgiana physically threw herself at Alibaba, ripping his hand from Koumei’s ankle instantly as both Fanalis and metal vessel user went flying across the room, although Morgiana twisted herself in mid-air to cushion Alibaba’s fall.

 

Easily keeping the thrashing form of the former prince trapped in spite of his struggles, she shook him sharply in hopes of snapping him out of whatever had gotten into him, even slapping him a few times (gently, gently, she didn’t want to take his head off).

 

When that failed as well, she finally just knocked him out and got to her feet. There was a dangerous look in her eyes that did not bode well for Koumei.

 

“What did you do to Alibaba-san?!”


	18. Chapter 18

Hastily putting his hands up to show that he was weaponless, Koumei shook his head.

 

“I didn’t do anything; the choker absorbed the magoi from his djinn equip and he went berserk,” he told the angry young woman, who continued to glare at him mistrustfully, standing in a protective stance in front of her king vessel. “Really.”

 

“Why did Alibaba-san Djinn Equip in the first place?” she asked, with obvious suspicion in her tone.

 

“Just an experiment,” Koumei replied stiffly, before changing the subject to a less delicate topic. “My apologies for inconveniencing you.”

 

Morgiana continued to keep a wary eye on him, but let it go for now. She could always ask Alibaba when he woke up, and if he didn’t tell her then it wasn’t her business.

 

“Alright. Do you need medical attention?” she asked, tone a little more forgiving than before as she looked him over, taking in the rapidly forming bruises and torn clothing.

 

“I will be fine,” Koumei nodded, long fingers prodding at his ribs with a tiny wince distorting his face every time he touched a particularly sore spot. “He broke nothing, so I will recover in due time. I appreciate your concern.”

 

Morgiana inclined her head slightly, and then picked Alibaba up and slung him over her shoulder. To her mild disappointment, she had discovered last year that he had grown so tall she could no longer carry him bridal style like she had when they were younger.

 

It tended to look comically ridiculous, since she had not grown much and he had shot up like a beanstalk. When Olba and Toto had collapsed in hysterical laughter for the third time and people had started pointing and giggling on the streets, she switched to a more typical fireman’s carry which did not involve Alibaba’s abnormally long limbs swinging around in a ridiculous fashion.

 

“…” She paused in the doorway as she thought of something.

 

_I wonder if Hakuryuu-san is still short enough for me to carry that way…_

 

He might be, since he was shorter than Alibaba by quite a bit, although that wasn’t much of a comparison since Alibaba was taller than even Sinbad at this point, and broader to boot.

 

Morgiana decided to try it out once she got back to the room, and continued out of the room with a decisive nod, leaving Koumei standing silent in the ruined room, staring after her and looking a little befuddled at her abrupt departure.

 

She walked back towards the room where Olba was watching Hakuryuu – and that had probably been a mistake, but she had been a little concerned back then – at a leisurely pace, keeping her eyes and ears open for anything unusual.

 

At this point, it was practically second nature to be on the alert for anything even remotely suspicious, whether it came from Al-Thamen or not. Everyone who had been anywhere _near_ the war did it, because the slightest leak of information could lead to disaster on the battlefield (or even out of it).

 

The fiasco with the maid-turned-traitor last night had caused a flurry of frantic repeated background checks and interrogations for all the staff, and any new people hoping to be hired were screened with merciless efficiency. Over ten maids had been fired for various reasons, and another Al-Thamen puppet had been amongst them.

 

Morgiana, as a Fanalis, was often asked to check the food and water stores to make sure they weren’t poisoned in any way, working together with a team of magicians who were tasked with detecting scentless poisons. It seemed as though Al-Thamen wasn’t stupid enough to poison the food stocks with anything obvious, since Morgiana hadn’t managed to catch anything out of place in all the times she had checked. On the other hand, the magicians used to find poisons almost consistently in the food stocks, until the security finally found the person who had been doing it.

 

Reaching the room and carefully opening the makeshift curtain that was serving as a door for now (cloth was a lot easier to replace than installing fresh doors every time the Fanalis broke one), she looked around the room. To her relief, Olba hadn’t picked a fight with Hakuryuu; instead he was glaring daggers at the other man, a much safer activity.

 

She entered quietly, but everyone still looked over at her, looks of alarm dominating their faces once they caught sight of the unconscious Alibaba hanging over her shoulder.

 

“He’s fine. Just knocked out,” she told them as she set the blond down on the bed. Olba didn’t look convinced though, walking over to examine Alibaba for any injuries. He regretted it a second later when Alibaba jolted awake with a yell and sat up abruptly, their foreheads colliding. Hakuryuu winced. The former prince of Balbadd fell to lie down again with a groan of pain and poor Olba reeled back to sit heavily on the ground with a loud ‘thump’.

 

“N-never mind; he’s totally fine,” he groused ruefully, rubbing at his forehead.

 

0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0

 

There were tiny shuffling noises from within the dark room.

 

The moonlight illuminated flashes of pale cloth as the figure moved about quietly, rolling up their blanket and pillow and placing it into the hammock to give the illusion that a person was still sleeping there. It wouldn’t hold up against more than a cursory glance, but the guards that peeked in every so often couldn’t see too clearly in the darkness. It would be enough.

 

In the bed, a richly dressed noblewoman slept blissfully away, unaware of the fact that her bonded was awake, dressed, and had slipped out of the room.

 

Around the palace at almost the same time, two others performed the same procedure, before making their way as stealthily as possible to the room that Kouha, Aladdin and Judal shared. They met in the corridor and nodded to one another, before carefully sliding the door (one of the few remaining that were actually pristine) open.

 

They entered the room and closed the door silently, with two of them standing back while the third leaned over the bed and ever so slowly put their hand over Kouha’s mouth.


	19. Chapter 19

 

Aladdin mumbled and turned over sleepily as there was a near-silent scraping noise from the door as it slid open, and the rustling of cloth as the admittedly quiet intruders entered the room. They weren’t assassins, or at least not from Al-Thamen; they would never send anyone this sloppy.

 

He continued to sleep deeply and remain blissfully unconscious even as a single set of footsteps shuffled closer and closer to the other side of the bed. Judal was sleeping between Aladdin and Kouha, making tiny snuffling noises every so often and burrowed deeply into the blankets.

 

“Kouha-sama,” there was a muted whisper. “Kouha-sama, please wake up.”

 

The voice was that of Kouha’s pretty servant, Junjun, the one that always covered her face.

 

“Junjun? Why are you here, it’s dangerous!” Kouha hissed at her, obviously awake. The bed shifted as he sat up.

 

“Kouha-sama, they will be putting the compulsions on us tomorrow,” the woman explained, her voice hushed. She hesitated, and then continued, “It is a little early, but we thought that you might wish to visit your mother in case they put additional compulsions on us.”

 

There was a startled silence before Kouha spoke again, his tone noticeably subdued.

 

“…Right.” The blankets swished as he got up from the bed, and the door slid open and closed again with barely a whisper of sound.

 

There was silence for a few moments more, and then Judal made a noise of complaint and turned over, latching securely onto his other source of warmth.

 

Aladdin opened bright blue eyes and stared silently into the darkness of the room, his expression contemplative.

 

‘ _His…mother?’_

 

O.O.O.O.O.O.O

 

Outside the palace, a good distance away from the walls, Kouha sank back against the wall, panting and sweating. His three maids were doing no better, but they still wiped delicately at the beads of sweat clinging to his face.

 

“It’s fine, leave it,” he told them once he caught his breath. “They really upped the security, didn’t they? We nearly got caught so many times…”

 

“Kouha-sama, please let us fix your hair…” Junjun fretted, with an anxious glance at his windswept locks. “Or your mother…”

 

“…Alright.” He stared at the ground while Jinjin and Reirei smoothed his hair back into place and Junjun adjusted the folds of his robe, unusually silent. The three servants exchanged worried looks.

 

“Kouha-sama… Are you all right? Have you been treated well?”

 

“Hm? Yeah, I’m good,” Kouha stood up and patted himself off. “Just…let’s hurry and see Mother. I don’t want to keep her up too late.”

 

“Yes, of course,” Reirei cut Junjun off as she opened her mouth, still looking concerned. They walked at a reasonable pace, heading for the outskirts of the city. The security outside the castle was not as tight as what was inside, but the four still had to duck behind doorways or bushes several times to avoid the gazes of patrolling guards.

 

Finally, they arrived at a small but lavish house, surrounded by a marble wall and a well-tended garden. Reirei turned to Kouha and adjusted his hat, sweeping a few strands of hair into place again before stepping back silently. Her face was grave, but she didn’t let Kouha see it, instead telling him, “Kouha-sama, we’ll wait outside as usual…unless you wish for us to-”

 

“No,” The third prince interrupted. “You know I won’t change my decision.”

 

She lowered her eyes to the ground and backed done as usual. She asked every time, and every time Kouha refused. It was routine at this point.

 

“Very well, Kouha-sama.”

 

The petite redhead stepped up to the wooden doors and visibly prepared himself, taking a deep breath and pasting a slight smile on his face. He knocked once, twice, three times on the oaken doors and waited. None of them were fazed when there was no response, instead waiting patiently without shifting from their positions.

 

Finally, after almost five minutes, they heard footsteps from the other side of the door.

 

“Who is it?” The voice was husky and melodic, a pleasant alto.

 

“It’s me, Mother. Kouha,” the prince responded. A moment later, the door swung open to reveal a stunningly beautiful woman, with crimson hair and rosy eyes similar to Kouha’s. She eyed him up and down a moment, taking in his appearance, and then her blood-red lips curved up into a sweet smile.

 

“Aah…my beautiful, beautiful Kouha-chan…” Her hand moved to caress his cheek gently.

 

“You are as lovely as ever, Mother,” Kouha responded quietly. She smiled at him for a moment longer, a loving look in those carmine orbs, before she raked her long nails sharply down his cheek, tearing the skin and leaving four long red lines on his face.

 

Junjun let out a tiny squeak and shifted as if to get up, but was immediately stopped by Reirei and Jinjin, whose hands snapped out to restrain her. She stopped and lowered her eyes, bottom lip wobbling; thankfully, neither Kouha nor his mother had noticed her movement.

 

Kouha didn’t flinch, still smiling at his mother, who beamed back and took his wrist with her bloodied hand, her grip deceptively gentle.

 

“Come in, Kouha-chan, and tell me how you’ve been…”

 

The door closed behind them with a decisive ‘click’, and instantly the three women relaxed a little, Reirei and Jinjin letting out sighs of relief.

 

Junjun still looked as if she wanted to cry; every month, Kouha insisted on going to see his mother unless they were out of the country, and every time, something similar happened. It wasn’t often that the woman would harm Kouha whilst still in the view of his servants though, and she hadn’t done it for years, which was why the magician was so shaken.

 

It had been this way since Kouha was young; he insisted on going to see his mother regardless of what was going on, and all they could do was wait for him outside and stay silent, like now.

 

They stayed like that for almost another hour without speaking a word, waiting for Kouha to return. Every time he went into that house, it was like he had entered another world, one where they could not follow and protect him, and where they could not lend him their strength and support.

 

When the prince finally left the house, half-stumbling down the stairs, there was a bruise on his unbloodied cheek and handprints on both arms, while the blood on his cheek appeared to have dried and left a trail of crimson.

 

They all rushed to support him, but remained silent as they cleaned his face, rubbing ointment onto his bruises and turning his hands over to reveal the imprints of fingernails on his palms – not his own, his mother’s marks. Sometimes Jinjin wondered if the woman sharpened her nails solely for the purpose of using them as weapons, or if they were like that because she thought they were beautiful. It was probably the latter.

 

As Reirei applied the last of the bandages to his face, Kouha stepped forward, his head bowed and his hair shadowing his face. They stared at him curiously, and then let out squeaks of surprise when he suddenly wrapped his arms around them and pulled all three women into a crushing hug.

 

“…Thanks, you all.”

 

“…Kouha-sama…!” Reirei stared at him in surprise.

 

“K-Kouha-sama…” Jinjin blinked, looking shocked and blushing brightly.

 

“Kouha-sama!” Junjun finally started crying, tears flowing unabashedly down her face as she wailed.

 

“H-hey! Don’t do that, you’re getting my robe all wet!”

 

“Mess me up, Kouha-samaaaa!”

 

“Me too!”

 

“No fair! It’s my turn!”

 

Kouha returned to the room alone, with several new wounds but also a tiny smile twitching at his lips. He slipped back under the covers, next to Aladdin this time, as his two bedmates seemed to have shifted while he was gone. About to close his eyes, he nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt a soft touch on his bandaged cheek, snapping his head around to face Aladdin so fast he nearly gave himself whiplash.

 

The magi was staring at him with soft blue eyes almost glowing in the bright moonlight, freezing Kouha – who had intended to…he didn’t know. Run for it? – In place where he lay on the bed. He searched Aladdin’s gaze for any sort of accusation or even anger, but there was nothing but worry there.

 

Aladdin opened his mouth, and Kouha’s shoulders hunched defensively as he glared, just _daring_ the other to ask.

 

“Is it something I need to know?” The words were nothing more than a breath against the sheets, the magi’s hand still hovering just above Kouha’s cheek. The redhead released a shaky breath and shook his head.

 

“Shall I heal that for you then?” This was said just as softly, drifting between them like the motes of dust illuminated by the pale light of the moon. Kouha shook his head again, still holding Aladdin’s hypnotizing gaze. His mother had given it to him, so he would keep it. He would be fine.

 

“Alright,” the blue-haired boy murmured. “Sleep well.”

 

Aladdin closed his eyes, but did not sleep for a good while.

 

He supposed this explained the many lines of slightly paler skin marking Kouha’s body, however subtle they were.

 

‘ _His mother…_ ’


	20. Chapter 20

The sound of cheerful birdsong came from the gardens outside, and the curtains rustled in the cool breeze from the open window. A beam of sun slipped through the parted screens and shone directly onto pale skin and dark lashes.

 

Kougyoku scrunched her face up irritably, swatting at the area in front of her face as if that would make the light go away. It didn’t help though, and a moment later, her eyes fluttered open reluctantly, squinting at the bright rays of morning.

 

“Uuurrgggghhhnnn….” She mumbled angrily upon seeing the curtain was half-opened. She threw an arm out to pull it closed but found that she couldn’t quite stretch far enough, straining futilely a few seconds before leaning even further, finally managing to snag the edge of the curtain with her fingers. “Ha! I have it-!”

 

The hammock, unbalanced by her weight, finally gave out at this last straw, and tipped to the side, spilling her face first onto the wooden floor with a muffled smack. The curtain slipped from her hand as she fell to the ground.

 

“Ugh…” Kougyoku groaned, twitching violently with irritation. She lay on the floor for a second longer, then raised her head and touched the red mark on her face with one hand. This apparently just wasn’t her day. Untangling herself from her blankets, she stood up, since there seemed to be no chance at her falling asleep again. She very carefully did not look in the direction of Sinbad’s bed. She wasn’t foolish enough to make the same mistake again; twice was more than enough embarrassment to last her for the rest of her life.

 

Rubbing her eyes, she turned to see if her elder brother was awake yet, finding him lounging in the hammock with a scroll draped over his face, blocking out any light that dared to shine on him. He appeared to have fallen asleep while reading, judging by the steady rise and fall of his chest.

 

Kougyoku smiled a little upon seeing that for once he appeared to be in a deep slumber. For the past few days, her beloved brother had not been sleeping too decently, especially after the attack that had injured his arm. He had been walking around looking a little like Koumei with dark circles under his eyes for quite a while now, so she was glad to see he was sleeping well for once.

 

There was a yawn and a rustle of shifting cloth from Sinbad’s direction, and she very deliberately didn’t turn to face him, instead choosing to greet him with a cheerful, “Good morning, Sinbad-sama! Are your clothes on?”

 

“Hm?” Sinbad paused for a second, and there was a swishing noise. “Ah, they are now…”

 

Kougyoku sighed. She had been right to be cautious.

 

“That means it still didn’t work…” She thought on it for a while. “I’ll tie it tighter next time then!”

 

Sinbad blanched a little.

 

“Ah, Kougyoku-chan, I don’t think it will work… Besides, you’re already tying it very tightly,” he said hastily, trying to keep the idea from taking root. She didn’t appear to be listening though, looking like she was having an epiphany of sorts. Sinbad suddenly felt as if he should fear for his continued bodily health. “S-so, anyways, my clothes aside…”

 

He swung his legs off the bed and got to his feet, stretching with a series of satisfying popping noises. Then he turned to face her, his expression suddenly serious.

 

“I’ll be bringing you two to the medical chambers today. It’s already started, so I’d like to get there as quickly as possible,” Sinbad told her. “Could you help me wake your brother?”

 

“Ah…but…Onii-sama hasn’t been…” She trailed off as Kouen’s hand came up and pulled the scroll off his face, revealing that his eyes were open and he was staring up at the ceiling with an utterly flat expression on his face.

 

“No need,” he told her, rolling up the scroll and putting it to the side. His free hand went to massage his forehead, and Kougyoku’s lips curved downwards at this reminder that he was not yet fully rested.

 

“Well, if you’re ready then we should go,” Sinbad reminded them, obnoxiously cheerful as always. Kouen and Kougyoku followed him in a lethargic silence to the corridor where they saw a line of people filing into the medical rooms, a line already including Koumei, although the rest of their siblings didn’t appear to be there yet.

 

The perpetually tired redhead (he seemed to be sleeping more now though) looked up and raised a hand in greeting.

 

“Koumei,” Kouen nodded. Kougyoku smiled and waved far more exuberantly than her less-than-enthusiastic elder brothers, to Koumei and then to Alibaba, who was standing in the doorway watching the process and very conspicuously avoiding making any sort of eye contact with Koumei.

 

He returned the wave, looking as though he was about to approach. However, before Alibaba could take more than a step their way, Ja’far, who looked rather concerned, intercepted him. He drew Alibaba to the side of the corridor, where the he promptly spun the blond around by the shoulders.

 

“Alibaba-kun,” he frowned. “You’ve been here since the medics started, but both your bonded have already left.”

 

Alibaba blinked and then made an expression that clearly expressed, ‘ _oh shit_ ’, unable to hide his feelings as always. Ja’far, who had been worried, was now clearly suspicious. He narrowed his eyes. “Alibaba-kun…”

 

Under that cold stare, Alibaba spilled in minutes.

 

By the end of his hurried explanation, Ja’far was smiling as if he hadn’t been burning holes into the other man with his glare just a few minutes ago.

 

“Ah, so you have finally decided to begin courting Kougyoku-chan!”

 

Alibaba stared in disbelief.

 

“E-eh? Finally? Wait, what?” he asked incredulously, mouth opening and closing speechlessly. Ja’far raised a hand to cover his smile.

 

“We were a little worried about you during the war, since we didn’t know what you would do if you battled against her. Luckily, it didn’t come to that,” the advisor told him.

 

“Why did everyone know before me?!” Alibaba spluttered, red-faced with embarrassment.

 

“You were rather obvious, Alibaba-kun…” The freckled man looked like he was trying not to laugh at the indignant expression on the former prince’s face.

 

Alibaba sulked, turning to walk back to the main hall where the medical squad was applying the suggestions, but Ja’far caught his arm before he could go. There was a grave expression on his face.

 

“Alibaba, is that all Koumei requested of you? Nothing else? This could be crucial.”

 

“…Yeah,” Alibaba nodded, actually being honest. Ja’far looked at him for a moment longer, then sighed and relaxed, closing his eyes for a brief moment.

 

“Very well. But take care not to try freeing Koumei again. We should have made this clear, but it really isn’t safe,” he reprimanded gently. The blond nodded again, and then rushed out to the hall; it was almost Koumei’s turn.

 

In his rush, he bumped into Judal, who was walking just ahead of Aladdin and Kouha. The dark magi fell back with a yelp and an angry curse, drawing most of the attention in the hall to the four standing at the edge of the room. Most turned away again after Judal did nothing other than grumble and get to his feet with a glare, but Kougyoku was wide-eyed and staring. Not looking away from the group, she uncharacteristically tugged on Kouen and Koumei’s sleeve, and then yanked when neither of them turned around.

 

“What is it, Kougyoku?” Koumei wheeled about, only to pause as she pointed. Kouen raised an eyebrow when he saw, shaking his head with a frown.

 

“K-Kouha-!” She appeared to be speechless. Koumei sighed when he realized she was pointing at Kouha’s bruised face.

 

“That’s right, you’ve never seen Kouha after he visited his mother…” His hand went to the back of his head automatically. “I didn’t think they would let him visit though…”

 

“H-his mother?!” Kougyoku squeaked, looking horrified. “I-Isn’t she…”

 

“Insane, yes,” Koumei agreed bluntly. “Kouha insists on going to visit her anyways. We’ve tried, trust me. This is…a little worse than the usual however…”

 

Kouen was observing Kouha closely, watching him until he turned and waved cheerfully. “He’s fine. Better than usual, apparently.”

 

Koumei looked closer, and then smiled ruefully. “Well, well, how did this happen?”

 

Kougyoku looked confused and more than a little upset.

 

“I thought he was worse than usual…?” she trailed off.

 

“Physically, yes. His mother doesn’t usually mark up his face. But look at him: he’s smiling. He doesn’t do that after visiting his mother much. I wonder what changed?”

 

Across the room, Kouha beamed and looped his arms over Aladdin’s shoulders from behind, evidently trying to get a piggy back ride like he had so often from others in the palace. Aladdin wobbled, swayed, and overbalanced, sending them crashing into the ground and bringing the unsuspecting Judal down with them as well.

 

“What the hell?! Are you guys doing this on purpose? Why is it always me!?”


	21. Chapter 21

Inside the hall, there was barely any sound aside from the rustling murmur of tens of voices as they incanted spells and recited the exact wordings of the suggestions. There were no other voices aside from those of the magicians, with everyone else in the room remaining solemnly silent. It created a somewhat sleepy atmosphere in the large hall, despite the fact that the sun was shining brightly through the open windows.

 

The magicians were lined up in two orderly columns, with one on each side of the long room. There were thick paper screens separating each station and filtering most of the background noise away. The bonded filed in one by one, exiting through a door at the back once the magicians were finished with them. Outside the room, there were uneasy murmurs at the thought of being under compulsion, but no one tried to run – it would be useless, with most of the Fanalis Corps standing guard in the area.

 

At his station, Sphintus sighed and rubbed at his eyes with a sleepy grumbling noise as he finished with yet another suggestion. He had a migraine and it wasn’t even noon yet. Draped around his neck like a heavy scarf, Kukulcan’s comforting weight shifted as he hissed in what sounded like a sort of sympathetic reassurance.

 

“Are you done?” he asked his assigned partner, a middle-aged man who was fairly capable in his field even though he seemed to have some slight anxiety issues that manifested at the most inconvenient times. Each station was assigned a sound magician, who would be the one to perform the compulsion, and a healer, who would check for any damage afterwards.

 

When he nodded, Sphintus got to his feet and waved the next person in the line of bonded over towards them. Behind him, he felt more than saw his co-worker gathering up his magoi in preparation for the compulsion. It was actually impressive that he had lasted this long; apparently the spell was actually quite magoi-intensive. The man wouldn’t make it past this last spell though; he would have to get another new partner.

 

When the next patient got close enough for him to make out the distinctive acne scars and crimson hair, Sphintus paused and turned to his sweating partner, motioning for him to stop.

 

“I-I can keep going though,” the man protested. Sphintus shook his head.

 

“The next one is royalty, so I’d prefer someone fresh. No offense meant, of course,” he said. “Call someone good over, would you? We can’t afford to muck this one up.”

 

It was lucky for Sphintus this man was rather timid, even though the Heliohapt native felt bad for using that to push him away. Another man might have refused and tried to push his way through anyways, causing possible problems in the future. His now-former partner just nodded and scurried off towards the room where the reserve magicians were resting and waiting for a situation exactly like this.

 

Upon arriving at the station, Koumei raised an eyebrow when he saw that only a single magician was standing there.

 

Responding to the unspoken question, Sphintus shrugged in an oddly erotic motion. Koumei was unfazed; he’d seen enough of Heliohapt to know that almost all the native citizens there seemed to have the same kind of grace that Sphintus and Sharrkan casually displayed in every movement.

 

“Just a minute, my partner is out of magoi so we can’t start yet.”

 

Across the room, another magician stood and started towards them. A second before he arrived at the station, Alibaba half-tripped, half-sprinted through the doors in his haste to get to their station.

 

The healer raised an eyebrow at him as he bent over to catch his breath.

 

“That doesn’t help. Stand up straight,” he told Alibaba, tone unsympathetic. “Why are you here, Captain Reckless? I told you I’m not healing you again if you’re planning to pull another suicidal stunt like before.”

 

“C-c-captain Reckless?! I told you not to call me that!” Alibaba protested in a near yell, blushing an angry red.

 

“Well, I can try ‘Suicidal Blond’ if you want,” Sphintus looked like he was considering it seriously. Alibaba shook his head frantically, opening his mouth again only to be cut off by Sphintus before he could even start talking. “I’m not changing it. I had to save you _three whole_ times in the middle of the battlefield, because you were too much of an idiot to notice that you were bleeding out. I’ll call you whatever I want, thank you very much.”

 

“Three times isn’t that much,” Sphintus’ new partner said in confusion. “Aren’t you being too harsh on him, Sphintus-sama?”

 

Sphintus paused to preen proudly for a second at being called with such a respectful suffix, and then clarified to his subordinate with a somewhat despairing look on his face, “Three times in a single battle.”

 

Koumei and the listening magician both stared at the steadily reddening Alibaba in mild incredulity for a full three seconds. He couldn’t really deny it had happened; in fact, Sphintus had saved him more than that, just like he had everyone else. Alibaba just had the highest consecutive number of near-deaths on a single battlefield.

 

“U-uh, well, anyways!” Alibaba changed the subject as fast as he could, not bothering to be subtle about it. “Ah…You don’t mind if I observe, do you?”

 

“Sure,” Sphintus agreed. “No noise though. I mean _at all_. Nothing. Or I’ll throw you out.”

 

Alibaba nodded hastily, and then watched as they began the process of applying the compulsion at last. The sound magician maneuvered his staff until the end was lying next to Koumei’s ear. The second prince was clearly not comfortable with this, eyeing the man with a wary gaze, his expression just shy of a frown.

 

When the soft light of magic formed however, Alibaba barely managed to contain the almost involuntary step back and there was a protest on the tip of his tongue before Sphintus gave him a warning glance. Koumei’s face had relaxed into an expression that was close to childlike confusion, his eyes wide and empty. The sharp intelligence that was his defining characteristic was no longer present, and instead he looked…vulnerable. Malleable. Alibaba supposed that was the point of the magic though.

 

As the former prince of Balbadd watched with morbid fascination, the magician began to read the compulsion off a scroll in his hand. He listened carefully and read as the magician spoke to make sure he wasn’t adding anything that hadn’t been scripted. When the man was finally finished, Alibaba felt as though it had been a lifetime even though it had barely been five minutes. It was a relief to see recognition in Koumei’s eyes, although he was blinking as if having woken up from a dream that he did not remember.

 

“What…?” he trailed off, looking around dazedly as Sphintus gave him a quick check with a diagnostic spell.

 

“You’re fine. You might feel a little disoriented for around an hour, and your ears may ring for the rest of the day, but you’ll be fine otherwise. If the symptoms persist come and see me,” Sphintus said, his manner brisk and businesslike. “Leave through the door at the back.”

 

Alibaba waited until Koumei was out of the station before turning to Sphintus with the beginnings of a horrified, indignant questioning already blurting out. Sphintus cut him off with a cold glare, then shut his eyes and took a deep drag off his pipe as if searching for patience.

 

“This is the only way to do it. All of you agreed to this method. It isn’t like we really _want_ to do this either; it goes against all the principles we’ve been taught,” the white-haired man snapped, his tone cutting. Then he stopped and massaged his temples, visibly trying to calm himself down.

 

Alibaba studied this in surprise, for the first time seeing the stress in the lines of the healer’s face and the tenseness of his shoulders.

 

“Like you said, there isn’t any other way,” Sphintus sighed. “It isn’t like we can reliably keep track of so many people for so long; our guards were busy just watching for Al-Thamen, they can’t keep this pace up for long.”

 

That was right; Alibaba himself had told Koumei he wouldn’t keep them from putting him under compulsion for just that very reason. What was he thinking, trying to vent on Sphintus?

 

Seeing the shamed expression manifesting itself on Alibaba’s face and knowing he would go into a sulk if left that way, Sphintus grumbled, “You really are high-maintenance aren’t you Captain Reckless?”

 

“E-eh? Ow!” Alibaba jumped away when the magician smacked him as hard as he could on the back. To be honest, it didn’t hurt that much; he was used to much worse from Sharrkan, or sometimes even Morgiana (although those incidents were generally accidental, they caused broken bones). “W-wha?”

 

Having effectively prevented imminent depression and moroseness, Sphintus shrugged it off and told him, “Never mind that, can you call the next person in? And if you see Ja’far-san, tell him I need him in the medical ward as soon as possible for the ‘thing’ we discovered. He’ll know what I mean.”

 

Alibaba blinked in confusion.

 

_‘Thing…?’_


End file.
